ISLAMABAD, FEB 10 (DNA) – Sherif Mohamed Kamaleldin Shaheen, Ambassador of Egypt to Pakistan has said that Egyptian companies considered Pakistan’s construction sector a promising area for investment and they were looking for partners in Pakistan for investment and joint ventures.He said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will have positive implications for Egypt as it would lead to easy movement in Suez Canal as well.

He said tourism was another potential area of cooperation between Egypt and Pakistan as Egypt has good expertise in this field and could help Pakistan in developing its tourism industry. He expressed these views during an interaction with business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Egyptian envoy said that Pakistan and Egypt enjoyed excellent political and military relations which should be transformed into growing trade and economic relations as the bilateral trade was not according to the true potential of both countries. He said Asia was emerging as a big market and Pakistan was an important country for Egypt to reap business and economic benefits from this region.

Sherif Shaheen said Pakistan and Egypt has good potential for developing cooperation in many fields and establishing direct contacts between the entrepreneurs of both countries was key to achieve these objectives.

He said Pakistan could also get better market access to African market by developing strong cooperation with Egypt. He said ICCI should form a delegation for Egypt to explore new areas of mutual collaboration and his Embassy would facilitate in making its visit successful.

In his welcome address, AtifIkram Sheikh, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Pakistan and Egypt enjoyed historically good relations and it was necessary that both countries should facilitate frequent exchange of trade delegations and organizing single country exhibitions to explore new avenues of improving bilateral trade and economic relations.

He said many Pakistani products including pharmaceuticals, fruits & vegetables, textiles, sports goods, surgical instruments, IT and others could find good market in Egypt.

He said Pakistan and Egypt should focus on removing all the bottlenecks hampering bilateral trade and facilitate private sectors in establishing strong business linkages so that businessmen could play leading role in promoting trade relations. =DNA