LAHORE: Many Singaporean companies are getting interested in vast trade and investment opportunities offered by a ‘changing’ Pakistan.

“We see some changes coming in Pakistan… and we think that we have best chance here with the present government in place to increase bilateral trade and investment relations,” Shamsher Zaman, the vice chairman of the South Asia Business Group of Singapore, told Dawn in an interview on Saturday.

Mr Zaman, who manages a large petrochemicals business that markets chemicals in 40 countries around the world and was heading a big delegation representing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as large multinational firms from Singapore, said the Singaporean companies would like to share and participate in Pakistan’s economic development.

“We are here to look at opportunities for cooperation in the infrastructure, information and communication technology (ICT), healthcare and so on. We are also looking at the moment the ways to help Pakistan increase its exports and not only to Singapore. Singapore is a place where all international traders are located. If we can engage them they can buy Pakistani products for distribution all over the world,” Mr Zaman, who is heading a delegation of companies from the island city-state, emphasised.

South Asia Business Group of Singapore vice chairman Shamsher Zaman seeks opportunities for cooperation in infrastructure, info tech

He said the purpose of bringing the business delegation to Pakistan is to connect the business community in Singapore and Pakistan. “Having assisted Singapore Business Federation (SBF), the apex business body in the city-state, I have realised that there is no engagement with Pakistan. With this in mind I am trying to facilitate Singapore companies to come to Pakistan and engage with its business community.”

Currently, the trade between the two countries stands at $1.2 billion with Pakistan importing goods worth $1.1bn from Singapore and exporting products worth only $89 million in the financial year 2018, says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Singapore invested $33.6m, including portfolio investment of $10m, in Pakistan last fiscal, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

“The current bilateral engagement on the business level is very low… the total trade between the two countries is very small compared with Singapore’s total trade of $800bn. From investment point of view, Singaporean companies have invested more than $850bn around the world. I am trying to see if we can help bring some portion of those investments to Pakistan? If we can increase bilateral trade into a few billion dollars and then gradually increase it? So we are here to identify areas where we can grow together,” he said.

Asked about his views on business climate in Pakistan, he said finance minister Asad Umer had told in his meeting with the delegation that Pakistan was nowhere close on ease of doing business with Singapore but it is improving. “I also think if there is some will to do… and some improvement comes in, it has to be gradual. Change doesn’t come overnight. I feel that the time is right we came in here and see the change happening and business environment improving here. So this is something very positive.”

He went on: “Business climate here is not ideal but our companies have gone to more difficult countries and have been very successful. In the Middle East, for example, it was not what you see today... the UAE is still ok but in other (ME) countries procedures are still improving over a period of time. We understand the intention of the (Pakistan) government, the will of the government and opportunities available here and can jointly work for economic development of Pakistan.

Mr Zaman said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a great example where companies of the two countries could work together as the Singapore government is also very interested in participating in the Belt and Road Initiative of China. “But the business communities should engage each other. Engagement is the key here. I haven’t seen any delegation coming from Singapore to Pakistan before or a Pakistani engaging our businessmen. So this delegation is the step in this direction. We have requested FPCCI to send a delegation. We also have asked individual businessmen to please come to Singapore. We will connect them with the right people even if Pakistani businessmen don’t want to come as part of a delegation. There are a lot of opportunities in Pakistan but people (in Singapore) don’t know about them. Engagement has to be an ongoing process. This visit is a good beginning for future engagement between the business communities of the two countries.”

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2019