*ISLAMABAD: Japan makes a big economic offer to Pakistan and wantsIslamabad to become a gateway for economic activities between Japan andCentral Asian Republics.*
Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Kuninori Matsuda said on Tuesday that JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA) is planning to enhance the level ofeconomic cooperation with the government of Pakistan, adding that Pakistancould prove to be an important gateway for expansion of regional tradebetween Japan and the Central Asian States.
The Japanese envoy said this during a meeting with Adviser to PrimeMinister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
The ambassador congratulated the adviser on assuming his responsibilitiesas the leader of the government’s financial team and briefed him on theexisting level of cooperation between the two countries.
He informed the adviser that the government of Japan and JICA arecooperating with the government of Pakistan on various social developmentprogrammes in the health and hygiene sectors, besides providing technicalassistance in counter-terrorism activities.
Moreover, he said, the Japanese investors are planning to invest inpharmaceutical and food & agriculture sectors of Pakistan. “The Japanesegovernment is planning to invite high-level Pakistani business delegationsto Japan to explore the possibilities of finding new trade ventures,” headded.
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Welcoming the ambassador, the adviser called the relations between the twocountries as ‘important’ for Pakistan. He expressed his desire to expandthe existing trade relations between the two countries on mutuallybeneficial and supportive terms.
The adviser welcomed the interest taken by the Japanese side in improvingits economic relations with Pakistan, saying that he would continue tosupport the further strengthening of this relationship.
Hafeez Shaikh also shared with the ambassador the details of his recentvisit, along with the prime minister, to the United States. Progress madeon the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was also shared on the occasion.
The adviser said that the relationship with the United States under theleadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan is on a more stable footing thanthe previous tenures and on the FATF programme, the government is makingall possible efforts to come out of the grey list; the US authorities haveacknowledged the hard work and seriousness of the Pakistani government incontrolling terror financing and money laundering.
