By NNN-APP
Sana’a (Yemen) : Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro Saturday called for exploring joint ventures by the Pak-Yemen business communities for further strengthening of bilateral trade and economic relations between the two brotherly countries.
He was addressing businessmen of Pakistan and Yemen here at Prime Minister House. His Yemeni counterpart, Dr Ali Muhammad Mujowwar also addressed the participants.
Governor Punjab Lt. Gen. (retd) Khalid Maqbool, Caretaker Minister for Health, Ijaz Rahim, Minister for Labour and Manpower, Nisar Ghumman, Chief Executive, Trading Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Tariq Ikram and Senators were also present on the occasion.
Prime Minister Soomro said that he is here with high-powered delegation of business executives as well as government officials covering the wide spectrum of economic and trade sectors.
He said “the two countries have tremendous potential and scope to augment their trade and economic engagements” and called for closer interaction and contact between the two sides.
Soormo also identified some areas of cooperation in which both countries can move along and reap the mutual benefit from each other’s experiences.
He further said that Pakistan had enough expertise in various fields with improved level of production in cement, textile, pharmaceutical and automobile and stressed for establishing better cooperation between the two brotherly countries.
He said that Pakistan can offer better expertise and know-how in the services sector like IT, Banking and Finance besides health, technical education, defence, security and police.
Prime Minister told the Yemeni businessmen that Pakistan is showing sustained and consistence economic growth of over 7 percent which include a lot of job opportunities besides improving the living standard of the people.
He said Pakistan is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and response of international financial institutions and agencies in this regard is very positive and encouraging.
He, however, said that there were certain unfortunate developments linked to terrorism which are being addressed effectively. Thus life is moving normal in Pakistan with enormous business opportunities for local as well as foreign investors, he added.
“Foreign delegations are visiting Pakistan regularly and flow of foreign investment remains unabated”.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan offers investment friendly policies and as a result, sizeable foreign investment is growing specially in the fields of equity and asset, energy, IT, Oil & Gas exploration which ensures high rate of return.
Like Yemen, he said, Pakistan also offers cheap labour in the region as compared to other countries where laborers wages are at high level.
Soomro said “our laborers are not only cheaper but also more skilled and hardworking”.
Yemeni Prime Minister Dr Ali Muhammad Mujowwar speaking on the occasion said Joint Pak-Yemen Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) would devise an effective mechanism to ensure proper implementation of the existing agreement between the two countries.
The technical committee of JMC will identify the modus operandi for effective implementation of their business accords so that opportunities of investment which exist between the two countries could be exploited to its true potential and at accelerate pace, he added.
He said Aden port can be used as a free economic zone by the Pakistan investors. Yemen, he said, has substantial potential for investment in the fields of fishing, fishing products and cotton and textile products.
He also expressed interest in the import of wheat from Pakistan.
Pakistan and Yemen also inked two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between their federations of Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
The second protocol was signed on technical cooperation between Investment Division and Board of Investment and Investment Authority of Yemen.