Partnership: Islamabad proposes free trade with Seoul

Premier Nawaz also offers to prepare ‘country partnership strategy’ for three years.

ISLAMABAD:

In a bid to strengthen the existing bilateral cooperation between them, Pakistan offered to prepare a ‘country partnership strategy’ with South Korea for the next three years. Apart from this, Islamabad has also proposed a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) with Seoul in order to enhance bilateral trade.

The proposals were made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his formal talks with visiting South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hongwon on Monday. Hongwon, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation, is on a four-day visit to Pakistan. He is the first South Korean prime minister to travel to Islamabad since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1983.

The ‘country partnership strategy’ provides a roadmap for exploring avenues of cooperation in different sectors to take bilateral relations between the two countries to the next level.

According to an official statement, the visiting prime minister and his Pakistani counterpart held discussions on a wide range of issues, including the enhancement of trade and business cooperation.

The statement said that Nawaz stressed upon the need to prepare a country partnership strategy between the two countries for the next three years (2013 to 2015).

He added that Pakistan was happy to witness the progress and development of the Republic of Korea and that “we are interested to learn from the Korean experience”.

The two governments must promote interaction and cooperation between their private sectors and regular interaction between their respective boards of investment, and chambers of commerce and industry, he said.

While discussing economic prospects, Premier Nawaz said it was heartening to note that trade between the two countries reached $1.6 billion in 2012.

He said Pakistan had proposed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that covers trade, investment and services so that trade between the two countries could be further enhanced.

He also appreciated the joint business forum organised by the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) and Board of Investment, Pakistan, on the sidelines of this visit and expressed hope that as an outcome of the business forum, the Korean companies would be engaged in the energy, infrastructure development, railways and telecommunication sectors.

Nawaz said Pakistan offers huge opportunities to Korean business companies in energy generation, including hydel, wind, solar, biomass and coal generation, and would appreciate the participation of Korean companies in initiatives such as the Gaddani Power Park and Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park.

Nawaz said that construction of offshore and onshore LNG terminals also offer investment opportunities to Korean companies and that Pakistan would welcome and facilitate Korean capital and technology in these sectors.

“The free economic zone along the China-Pak economic corridor also offers investment opportunities to Korean investors. In this economic zone, Korean SMEs can establish joint ventures in the manufacturing sector to cater to a large and growing domestic market as well as Korean and regional markets,”  he said.

The premier invited Korean financial institutions to start their operations in Pakistan, adding that the opening of a branch of a Korean bank in Pakistan would boost business between the two countries.

The Korean prime minister thanked Nawaz, the government and people of Pakistan for extending a warm welcome during his visit.

Hongwon said Pakistan and South Korea should expand their trade, economy and energy sectors and enhance bilateral relations by increasing personnel exchanges in the private sector.

Views were also exchanged on regional and international issues.

The two prime ministers witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and Korea on trade, industry and energy.

The MoU was signed by Muhammad Shahzad Arbab, the secretary of commerce from the Pakistani side and Han Jinhun, the vice minister for trade and energy from the Korean side.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2014.