Atif Ikram Sheikh, President FPCCI, has apprised that FPCCI fully supports the Ministry of Commerce and TDAP’s Look Africa policy initiatives & programs; and, being the apex body, will facilitate the business communities of both sides to explore avenues of trade, investment, industrial, JVs and economic cooperation.
It is pertinent to note that Jemal Beker Abdula, Ambassador of Ethiopia in Pakistan, has visited FPCCI Head Office in Karachi to attend the inaugural meeting of Pakistan – Ethiopia Business Council of FPCCI; along with senior members of his team to offer to host a high-profile trade delegation of Pakistani trade and industry in Ethiopia to enable them better understanding the dynamically progressing Ethiopian economy across various industries and sectors.
Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, SVP FPCCI, highlighted that both the countries signed the Bilateral Trade Agreement in February 2023; and, we should fully operationalize and capitalize on its offerings. He added that Pakistan mainly exports healthcare products, chemicals, machinery, sugar, rice and textiles to Ethiopia; whereas, Pakistan mainly imports tea, coffee, red kidney beans, chickpeas, pulses, hides and skins from Ethiopia.
Zubair Motiwala, Chief Executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), specially attended the significant gathering of the business, industry, and trade community on the initiation of FPCCI – and, maintained that Ethiopia is posting GDP growth of 7 – 8 percent despite being faced with many similar challenges as that of Pakistan.
Motiwala stressed that this kid of economic growth manifests in the emergence of a strong, vibrant middle class; which, in turn, drives consumption and import demand. Therefore, Pakistani exporters must be cognizant of the fact; visit Ethiopia and create B2B linkages to tap this very important and second most populous export market in the heart of Africa, he added.
Ibrahim Khalid Tawab, Chairman of Pakistan – Ethiopia Business Council of FPCCI, emphasized that Ethiopian Airlines commenced direct flights from Addis Ababa to Karachi in 2023; which sheds light on the growing people-to-people and B2B ties between the two countries. He informed that his business council is helping form an Ethiopian – Pakistan Fraternity under Green Legacy Initiative as a partnership between Government of Sindh and Ethiopian Embassy to enable the linkages and partnerships to address climate change challenges.
Jemal Beker Abdula, Ambassador of Ethiopia in Pakistan, outlined the incentives on the offer in Ethiopia for investors and specifically mentioned that it offers one of the cheapest electricity to the industry as compared to the entire world. He said that, in terms of economic opportunities, Ethiopia considers itself as a land-linked country instead of a landlocked country due to its geographical contiguity with rest of the Africa and further into Asia – and, Africa is rightfully considered the continent of future by the economic experts in international trade & development.
Jemal Beker Abdula invited a multi-sectorial delegation under the leadership of FPCCI to Ethiopia to open the doors of cooperation between the two countries. He also specifically called upon the joint efforts to deal with climate change in order to protect agriculture, their people and their economies through food and environment security.
