ISLAMABAD – Honorary Consul General of Rwanda Farooq A Khawaja Friday saidAfrica is billions dollars export market for Pakistan, which has beenneglected so far.He said this while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (ICCI).He stressed that Pakistani exporters should accelerate efforts to tap thishuge market of 1.25 billion people to enhance exports.He said all Pakistani exportable products including pharmaceuticals,textiles, rice, sports goods and others have good demand in Africa.He said the current century is the century of Africa and many big economiesof the world including USA, China, India, France and Turkey are enhancingtheir presence in Africa, but Pakistan is missing from the scene.He said Pakistan is focusing on EU, Middle East and North America for tradeand exports while Africa is the most lucrative market for it and Pakistanshould give more focus to this big market.Farooq A Khawaja said China has 50 missions in Africa, India 48, butPakistan has only 14 missions, which shows that Pakistan is not paying dueattention to this region.He said China has invested $197 billion in Africa while India is the 5thlargest investor in Africa, but Pakistan has ignored this region for tradeand investment.He said with better efforts, Pakistan could increase $4-5 billion exportsto Africa within years.Highlighting the potential of Rwanda, he said it has brought drasticeconomic reforms and is on number two in Africa on ease of doing business.He said that 44 African countries had signed a free trade agreement lastyear paving way for a liberalized market for goods and services.Thus by exporting to Rwanda, Pakistan could get easy market access toAfrican continental. He said ICCI should form a delegation for Rwanda tostudy the African market and assured of his cooperation to facilitate itsvisit.Speaking at the occasion, ICCI President Ahmed Hassan Moughal said as afirst step, Pakistan and Rwanda should arrange direct flights that wouldfacilitate in promoting trade relations.He said Pakistan’s share in total trade of African countries is 0.3percent, which is quite negligible and stressed that government shouldcooperate with private sector in exploring African market.He said the government’s support in organizing single country exhibitionsin Rwanda and other African countries would help in introducing Pakistaniproducts to this huge untapped market.ICCI Senior Vice President Rafat Farid and Vice President Iftikhar AnwarSethi said the government has formed a Look Africa policy, but so far notangible progress has been made to penetrate the African market.They said Trade Development Authority of Pakistan should organize frequenttrade delegations to Africa so that private sector can capture bettermarket share in African region.
Pakistan to hit billion dollars African Export Market
