ISLAMABAD: Mayor of Pendle of Lancashire County Yasser Iqbal said that he would play role to further increase bilateral trade ties between Pakistan and UK as both countries have good potential of trade in many areas for mutual benefit. Exchanging views with Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) during his visit to Chamber. Yasser Iqbal said that Pakistani diaspora in UK was keen to invest in Pakistan as they wanted to see Pakistan as strong economy. He said that conducive business environment would attract more investment from overseas Pakistanis settled in UK and other countries. He invited ICCI delegation to visit UK to explore business collaboration with Britain counterparts and assured that he would cooperate in making their visit successful. Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari said that UK was an important trading partner of Pakistan and we wanted to further enhance trade and exports with UK.

He said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and UK was still less than $ 3 billion and stressed need of developing strong business linkages between private sectors of both countries to take bilateral trade to higher levels. He said that Chinese and Indian diaspora has played an important role in making economies of their home countries better and stressed that Pakistani diaspora should also come forward to steer Pakistan out of current economic turmoil. He said that UK has already invested in Pakistan in many sectors including financial services, oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining, electricity generation, pharmaceutical, publishing, industrial chemicals and cement and stressed that Pakistani diaspora in UK should transfer technology and explore joint ventures and investment in Pakistan. Khalid Iqbal Malik, Zafar Bakhtawari and others spoke and shared useful ideas for further improving bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and UK.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 28 2023

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