South Korea is well aware of the challenges being faced by Pakistan’s energy sector and wants to help overcome the energy shortage that has crippled the country’s industrial sector, said South Korean Ambassador to Pakistan Choongjoo Choi on Friday.
The ambassador during his visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) expressed the optimism that the volume of trade between Pakistan and South Korea was bound to increase as both the governments are taking measures to get desired results.
The non-availability of required trade-related information was the biggest hurdle in the way of South Korean investment in Pakistan, Choi said. He admitted that Korean investment in Pakistan is much lower than its potential.
The diplomat said that there is huge potential in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector and the Pakistani business community could avail opportunities in this particular area.
He urged the LCCI to arrange a business delegation to South Korea so that Pakistani businessmen could have first-hand knowledge about the opportunities.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that Pakistan is comes in the fifteen largest economies of the world because of the surplus balance of trade exported to the tune of $468 billion in 2010. It is indeed a role model for developing economies like Pakistan.
Pakistan and Korea are not new to each other and are doing well through joint ventures in various fields like telecommunications, transportation, infrastructure, electronics, chemical industry, automobiles among other sectors.
Moreover, price of per acre agriculture land is cheaper in the outskirts of Lahore compared with regional countries like India and Bangladesh. By transfer of know-how and technology, both Pakistan and Korea can benefit as skilled and semi-skilled manpower is available in huge numbers.
Although trade balance has traditionally not been in favour of Pakistan, growing exports to Korea are showing continuous upward momentum in the last few years.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2012.
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