Zubair Ahmad
Islamabad: H.E. Ibrahim Almadani, Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan along with Dr. Maen Khareasat, Minister Plenipotentiary of his Embassy visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and exchanged views with Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan President ICCI and his team on a wide range of areas for further enhancing bilateral trade and economic relations between Jordan and Pakistan.
Ibrahim Almadani said that Jordan valued its fraternal relations with Pakistan and was keen to increase its trade ties with it for mutual benefit. He said that Jordan and Pakistan shared the same religion, culture and values, which provided them with strong foundations to further increase trade and economic relations. He said that Jordan was empowering its private sector, liberalizing the economy and was open for JVs, therefore, Pakistani entrepreneurs should explore JVs and investment opportunities in the free economic zones of Jordan. He said both countries have good potential to cooperate with each other in tourism, pharmaceutical, agriculture, defence and other fields. He said that participation in trade fairs & exhibitions on reciprocal basis and exchange of trade delegations would play an effective role in promoting trade cooperation between the two countries.
Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry emphasized for enhancing bilateral trade as the existing volume of just over half a billion-dollar bilateral trade was negligible given the existing economic potential of both countries. He said that Pakistan and Jordan should sign a free trade agreement to remove trade barriers and boost trade volume. He said that Pakistan was now making good progress towards industrialization while the trade bodies were also lobbying for further policy changes to promote major sectors of the economy including tourism, industry, services sectors, therefore, it was the right time for Jordanian entrepreneurs to explore Pakistan for business and investment.
Mian Akram Farid, Chairman ICCI Founder Group said that CPEC has started a new phase of industrialization in Pakistan and the business community of Jordan should come to take benefits from CPEC projects in Pakistan. He said that Jordan should plan a trade mission for Pakistan and ICCI would provide all possible support to make its visit successful.
Fatma Azim Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI said that due to the same religion and culture, entrepreneurs of both countries felt comfortable in doing trade with each other, however, they needed more facilitation and support from their respective governments to take bilateral trade and economic relations to higher levels.
Aslam Khokhar, Abdul Rehman Siddiqui, Javed Iqbal, Muhammad Shakir, Raja Hassan Akhtar, Ch. Ashraf Farzand, Khalid Chaudhry, Naveed Malik, Ms. Neelam Khalid Chaudhry, Ms. Nasir Ali and others were also present at the occasion.
