RAWALPINDI, FEB 06 (DNA)-  A five member delegation led by Malik Shahid Saleem, President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) called on ambassador of Libya, Nizar.A.Nabiyah in Islamabad here on Tuesday.

While talking to the delegation, Ambassador Niza Nabiyah said that both countries enjoyed friendly relations and there is need to explore new avenues of trade between the both countries.

He said Africa is a big market and urged Pakistan Business Community to avail Libyan special incentives. Construction, leader, textile and Pharmaceutical are emerging sectors where traders should explore new opportunities, he added. He also lauded RCCI’s efforts in promoting regional trade through exhibitions.

He assured his full cooperation and assistance for “Business Africa Trade Forum” being organized by RCCI later this month.

Earlier, RCCI President gave a brief summary of Africa Trade Forum and said that major aim of this Forum was to involve business community to explore new markets for exports and added that the Forum will help us to identify the gray areas, bottle necks in promoting trade ties with African Countries.

There are Fifty-four African countries comprising over 1 billion population with huge potential for Pakistan to promote trade and exports, said RCCI President

The government of Pakistan should provide incentives to the private sector for organising exhibitions, trade fairs and road shows in African countries to introduce Pakistani products in the region, he said.

Malik Shahid Saleem said that Africa, South and Latin America and Central Asian countries are the non-traditional markets for Pakistan’s exports and have huge potentials for enhancing of exports.

Africa is the second largest continent of the world with 54 sovereign states and and population 1.2 billion with collective GDP US$ 3.3 trillion and imports market of around US$ 500 billion. Many of the African countries like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritius, Namibia and Botswana are the countries whose nominal per capita income is more than US$ 3000 and twice of Pakistan, he informed.

Pakistan’s trade with African Countries stood around $3 billion whereas the total trade volume of Africa was around $1 trillion, he added.=DNA

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