Islamabad,31 Dec 2020 (DNA) : Fatma Azim, Acting President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) said that Pakistan and the Republic of Djibouti should focus on promoting bilateral trade and economic relations as both countries have the potential to do trade in many items. She said this while addressing a delegation of the Republic of Djibouti that visited Pakistan led by Mohamed Ali Houmed, President, National Assembly. Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile Industry was also present at the occasion. ICCI Executive Members including Muhammad ShakeelMunir, Muhammad Javed Iqbal, Muhammad OmaisKhattak and others also attended the B2B meeting with the delegation of Djibouti.

Fatma Azim said that Republic of Djibouti was situated at a strategic location in Africa and enhancing trade cooperation with it would provide Pakistan better access to African markets. Similarly, Djibouti could get easy access to South Asian markets by developing close trade ties with Pakistan. She said that the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has a vision to promote Pakistan’s exports to all potential markets and improving trade ties with Djibouti would help in making significant increase in our exports with Africa. She identified textiles, IT, Halal food, rice, pharmaceuticals, leather products, surgical instruments as potential exports products of Pakistan for Djibouti.

Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Chairman, Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile Industry briefed the delegation of Djibouti about the potential areas of JVs and investment in Pakistan including tourism, real estate & construction, infrastructure development and said that investors of Djibouti should take advantage of Pakistan’s liberal business and investment policies by exploring JVs and investment in Pakistan.

Speaking at the occasion, Mohamed Ali Houmed, President, National Assembly, Republic of Djibouti said that there was no industry in Djibouti as only service providers were doing business in his country. He said that Pakistani investors should set up industries in Djibouti in various sectors including IT & telecom, pharmaceutical, marble & granite and construction. He said that both countries should establish an Economic Forum to improve bilateral trade and economic relations. He said that Djibouti achieved over 8% economic growth in 2018 and over 7% growth in 2019, which showed that it has good prospects for foreign investors and urged that Pakistani investors should take more interest in his country for investing in various ongoing projects to achieve lucrative outcomes.