KARACHI, Nov 6: A 30-member Pakistani businessmen delegation will visit Turkey in April next with the objective to expanding trade relations in various sectors.
This was stated by Turkish Consul-General at Karachi, Fevzi Uslubas, in an interview to APP.
He said the delegation will have 10 members from the public and 20 from the private sector and will compose of, besides others, officials of FPCCI, KCCI, Sialkot and Islamabad Chambers.
The delegation, he pointed out, will visit Istanbul, Bursa and Izmir and have an interaction with the Chambrmen and Employer’s Association in Istanbul, Textile, automobile manufacturing and spare part sectors in Bursa and Textile and Pharmaceutical sectors in Izmir.
He said that the trade volume between Pakistan and Turkey during the year 2001 stood at $157 million, which included $95 million exports from Pakistan and around $63 million exports from Turkey to Pakistan.
He said, “we have started to diversify our trade relations, and during the Turkish Business Fare held at Expo Centre between February 16-19 this year, we had tried to identify new areas in which we can boost trade and hopefully this year’s trade figures will go up to around $200 million.
“But it is not enough because the trade potential of both the countries has not been fully exploited,” Fevzy said adding that Turkey is holding another trade exhibition in Pakistan between October 5-12 next year.
“We plan to achieve $250 million trade volume by next year.”
He said the main items exported from Pakistan to Turkey are textile products, cotton, cotton yarn, textile garments and some food items while from Turkey to Pakistan these are mainly some machinery, equipments, electric motors, and steel and iron and some construction materials.
He said for sometime Turkish wheat was also exported to Pakistan depending on its wheat production. But thanks to Pakistan’s good production, it is not importing wheat anymore now and rather has started exporting the staple commodity which is a good sign for trade balance of Pakistan.
With regard to rice, he said, Turkey is importing this commodity from Thailand and some other South Asian countries. He said rice exporters in Pakistan should be more dynamic to develop their links with and explore the Turkish rice market.
To a question, the Turkish Consul General said it is not the question of price and quality.
“We know that Pakistani rice is of very good quality, especially the Basmati brand with low price. But there is something missing or businessmen of
both the countries lack interaction.”
He said that maybe Pakistani exporters were not interested in the Turkish rice market, otherwise Thailand and South Korea and even China are so dynamic in exploring Turkish market —APP
