LAHORE, NOV 23 (DNA) – Entire  business community across the country termed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s four high level official  foreign visits  to Saudi Arabia, UAE, China and Malaysia good harbinger for the country as his counterparts not only gave positive gestures to help Pakistan out of economic crunch but also  committed to strengthen trade and economic ties besides  eliminating all impediments to seamless flow of trade and investment among all four brotherly countries.

Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) Chief Executive Mian Kashif Ashfaq expressed these views while presiding over a meeting of board of directors held here Friday. He said a high level PFC delegation was too included in Prime Minister’s entourage in China which was warmly welcomed by the Chinese furniture makers and investors as  Chinese  showed keen interest in joint venture with PFC. He further said all these four countries reiterated their resolve to transform the existing special relations into a strategic long-term economic partnership by adopting a direct, transparent and time bound approach.

He said Prime Minister recent visit to Malaysia is a big success for the country and hoped that both the brotherly Islamic countries would process further strengthening bilateral relationship in different fields especially in furniture sector too. He said we have chalked out a comprehensive roadmap to accelerate cooperation and partnership in furniture sector and soon delegations from China and Malaysia will visit Pakistan to participate in coming PFC 10^th 3-day mega Interiors Pakistan exhibition on Dec 14 in expo center Lahore.

Mian Kashif appreciated PTI government for supporting local industry to boost exports and in this regard, PFC is too planning to organize exhibitions in different countries initially joining hands with their Chinese counterparts. He further said a high level delegation will visit Malaysia on the invitation of Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) and explore new potential in furniture sector. He said as PFC organizes international level exhibitions similarly MTC too organizes furniture fairs in which China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea displayed their products and next time PFC will participate in this exhibition to attract foreign buyers and investors.

Highlighting Pak-Malaysian trade relationship, he said that balance of trade had always been in favour of Malaysia and said though the trade gap had been narrowing consistently over the past five years, imports from Malaysia were still six times higher than exports. “We have failed to take some advantage of the FTA. It provided us a good platform for a win-win situation but Pakistan achieved a far lesser advantage than its potential,” he remarked.

He said Pakistan is rich in human resources and there is great potential for Pakistan to export its skilled technical and labour force besides educated human resources to Malaysia. Pakistan is an open economy with no restrictions where Malaysian firms and contractors can benefit from entering into Joint Ventures for establishing businesses. In this context, frequent exchange of trade delegation, regular exchange of trade information and organising of single country exhibition will be instrumental to enhance the trade between Malaysia and Pakistan.

Mian Kashif further said Pakistan has the capacity to gain its fair share in the international markets but the government needs to provide robust backing to the furniture industry, otherwise, individual efforts may not fetch the desired results.