ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan’s balance of trade with Qatar has been highly infavour for the Arab country after the historic LNG deal, Pakistan is tryingto increase exports to Qatar to reduce the trade deficit. Officials fromboth countries discussed possibilities of increasing bilateral trade duringthe Pakistan Qatar Business Conference held here on Thursday.
Qatar’s Minister of Economy and Commerce, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim BinMohammed Al Thani and Pakistan’s Minister for Commerce and Textile MianMisbahur Rehman co-chaired the conference. A high-powered businessdelegation representing food, agriculture, livestock, aviation, maritimeand shipping sector including thirty five businessmen and fifteen officialsfrom the State of Qatar, Saqr Bin Mubarak Al-Mansouri, Ambassador of Qatarand diplomats, attended the conference along with over 150 Pakistanibusinessmen and officials from Ministry of Commerce, Trade DevelopmentAuthority of Pakistan, Pakistan Horticulture Development and ExportCompany, and the Board of Investment.
Mian Misbahur Rehman emphasised that the Government of Pakistan desiresthat the long and historic relationship between Pakistan and Qatar shouldbe translated into enhanced trade and evolved into a sustainablepartnership. He pointed out that Pakistan’s exports to Qatar have shown anincrease of 75 per cent in FY 2017-18 but in value terms, it is only anincrease of $37 million. Due to the import of LNG, trade deficit ofPakistan with Qatar has increased to $1.6 billion. He invited Qatar toinvest in Agriculture, food processing and the petrochemical industry inPakistan. As Qatar is preparing to host the FIFA World Cup 2022,substantial scope exists for procurement of goods and services fromPakistan.
Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Bin Mohammed Al Thani elaborated that Qatar desiresto have a close economic partnership with Pakistan and the two countriescould cooperate and have joint ventures in food processing, petro chemicalsand other sectors. He announced that Qatar has prioritised six countries tohave an economic partnership and Pakistan is one of them. Therefore, he isvisiting Pakistan along with the high powered business delegation toexplore opportunities in various sectors. It was also announced that QatarAirways will increase the number of flights to Pakistan.