Boosting trade with Pakistan's economic powerhouse

On November 4, Vietnamese Ambassador to Pakistan Nguyen Tien Phong visited and worked in Sialkot city, one of Pakistan's largest medical equipment export production centers.

Sialkot is the leading city in Pakistan's manufacturing exports.

Sialkot is one of the economic centers of the Northeastern region of Pakistan, a "locomotive" city in export production with tens of thousands of enterprises and large production facilities, especially in the field of exporting medical equipment, sports, leather shoes, tourism, etc. Sialkot is also considered the "capital" of manufacturing sports equipment and apparel (accounting for 70% of the global soccer export market share) and leather products, surgical instruments of the world's top quality, competitive prices.

During the working visit to Sialkot, Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong and staff of the Vietnam Trade Office in Karachi and the Economic Diplomacy Department of the Embassy met with the President of the Federation of Sialkot Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Malik and member businesses.

At the meeting, the SCCI leaders briefly introduced the strengths and potentials of industries in Sialkot and the possibility of cooperation between businesses of both sides to the Ambassador, and hoped that both sides would make efforts to promote tariff relaxation, facilitate bilateral trade delegation exchanges to enhance interaction in the private sector; take advantage of e-commerce and digital trade platforms to promote cross-border trade, and help businesses easily connect with potential customers and partners.

Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong hopes to promote the exploitation and discovery of great potential not only for the business community of Punjab province but also for the market of 330 million consumers of both countries.

Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong emphasized that in order to promote cooperation between the two sides, it is important to have exchange activities, raise awareness and mutual understanding of history, culture, people, and laws of each country, as well as international laws in commercial business.

The Ambassador wishes to promote the exploitation and exploration of the huge potential not only for the business community of Punjab province but also for the market of 330 million consumers of both countries. In addition to economic and trade cooperation, measures to promote people-to-people exchanges and business delegation exchanges between the two countries were also discussed at the meeting.

Talking to the local business community, the Ambassador also shared information about e-visas, the new visa policy of the Vietnamese Government, the role, importance, and potential for cooperation between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the two sides, a force that contributes up to 50% to GDP and creates 70% of jobs for workers.

The Ambassador proposed the establishment of joint ventures between businesses of the two countries in areas of strength, taking advantage of the GSP+ that Pakistan is enjoying and the EVFTA that Vietnam has signed, focusing on exploiting existing mechanisms such as the Vietnam - Pakistan Trade Subcommittee (expected to be held in January 2024) as a foundation to promote negotiations to sign the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). At the same time, the Ambassador also proposed a number of specific and detailed measures to further promote economic, trade and investment cooperation, focusing on establishing and signing partnership cooperation agreements between businesses of the two sides.

During the visit to Sialkot, Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong and the Embassy delegation had working sessions with the local business community.

During the visit to Sialkot, Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong and the Embassy delegation had meetings with the All Pakistan Medical Equipment Manufacturers Association (SIMAP) - representing 3,900 member companies with more than 150,000 workers and met with export sports goods manufacturing enterprises. During the meetings, the two sides exchanged information and potential cooperation, and answered questions and concerns of local enterprises wishing to expand business cooperation with Vietnamese enterprises.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/thuc-day-giao-thuong-voi-trung-tam-kinh-te-dau-tau-cua-pakistan-249270.html