ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: Negotiations are under way to sign a Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and Canada, as volume of two-way trade is not up to their existing potentials.

These views were expressed by Andy Merchant, President, Canada-Pakistan Business Council, while speaking here at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.

David Cohen, Councillor Ward-4 Town of Richmond Hill Canada and leading businessmen mainly from IT sector, were part of the delegation, which had useful business meetings with the members of the ICCI.

Mr Merchant maintained that Canada was an important trading partner of Pakistan and presently Canadian business delegation was on a 10-day tour to explore possibilities of joint venture investments, especially in the IT sector here.

At present two-way trade is about 700 million Canadian dollars and there is a tremendous scope for increasing this volume, as signing of FTA will provide greater market access to both the countries, said Mr Merchant.

The trade with Canada would be a stepping-stone for the trade with entire North American market, which itself is a very huge market with a huge potential, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Nasir Khan, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that joint ventures between the two countries were of worth consideration.He said there was a need to redouble efforts for increasing the volume of trade between the two countries.

The ICCI president said that Pakistan's growing economy and its strategic location as a regional hub, a principal gateway to Central Asian republics, large consumer market, abundant natural resources, cheap but skilled labour, well established infrastructure and liberal investment-friendly policies offer immense opportunities for foreign investment, which had been facilitated by the government through a number of incentives.

All the economic sectors have been opened to foreign direct investment and there is no limit on equity held by foreigners and no restriction on entering into a joint venture with a Pakistani counterpart, said Nasir Khan.

The ICCI president said that the establishment of Gwadar Port, textile/garments cities at Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, Sundar Industrial Estate (Lahore) and Faisalabad Industrial City (FIC) offer huge lucrative opportunities to foreign investors.He said oil and gas, engineering goods, mining, infrastructure, power, IT and telecom, chemicals, agro-based industries and SMEs were other attractive areas which could be explored for investment by foreigners.—APP