German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck says that Germany wants to further enhance bilateral trade relations with Pakistan and added that two business delegations are scheduled to visit Pakistan soon.
Interacting with the business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the ambassador elaborated that one German delegation will represent the water and sanitation sector while the other will be from the agriculture sector.
He said that Pak-German bilateral trade is worth over €3 billion with the trade balance in favor of Pakistan. He said that Pakistan is mostly exporting textile, leather products, and surgical instruments to Germany, with the potential to export more products.
The German ambassador said that a record number of Pakistani companies (over 280) participated in the Heimtextil 2020 International Trade Fair held in Frankfurt. He stressed that companies of both countries should actively participate in each other’s trade fairs in order to further enhance bilateral trade and business relations.
Pakistan should also organize more trade fairs to attract foreign investors, he said, adding that he had discussed the possibility of organizing joint tours by Pakistani and German chambers of commerce with Pakistan’s ambassador-designate to Germany to further strengthen trade cooperation between the two countries.
He is hopeful that Pakistan will get good news for extension in GSP Plus status from the EU that will further improve its exports.
The envoy said that he is ready to cooperate with the ICCI in facilitating the visit of the chamber’s delegation to Germany. Speaking on the occasion, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed outlined the business and investment opportunities in Pakistan.
He said that Germany has advanced technology and its investors should come to Pakistan aiming for technology transfer to help establish joint ventures for producing value-added products to boost exports.
Waheed said that Pakistan provides easy access to the Central Asian countries while CPEC offered great potential to foreign investors, stressing the German investors to benefit from these opportunities by investing in Pakistan.
IT and pharmaceutical sectors are other potential areas for mutual cooperation between the two countries, added the ICCI president.
