LAHORE: A Qatari delegation visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday and urged the Pakistani business community to tap the investment opportunities available in sectors like infrastructure, tourism, pharmaceutical and healthcare.

Ahmed Hussain, who was heading the six-member delegation, said Qatar was also in dire need of skilled manpower, and Pakistan could take advantage of the situation. He said his country’s education and engineering sectors also had various opportunities for Pakistan.

Hussain said a single-country exhibition has been designed for Pakistani businessmen in Qatar by the end of March 2015 and “we would like to request Pakistani companies to take part in the exhibition to establish close contacts with their counterparts”.

Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that despite the fact that Pakistan and Qatar are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and also had close friendly and cooperative relations, these prolonged ties did not reflect in bilateral economic relations. Mutual trade fell from $425 million in 2012 to $243m in 2013, he said.—APP

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014