ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday called for expanding the scope of bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Japan across a wide spectrum of areas, especially trade, investment, economy, culture and people-to-people contacts.

“Pakistan is a huge market and Japanese businesses should benefit from the economic opportunities by investing in diverse sectors,” the president expressed these views while talking to Japanese ambassador Mitsuhiro Wada, who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Talking to the ambassador, the president said that both countries had been enjoying long-standing relations, which needed to be further cemented for the mutual benefit of the two sides. He highlighted that Japan had been a key development partner of Pakistan that had been supporting Pakistan’s socio-economic development in different sectors under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Zardari said Pakistan had a huge population and could send trained workforce and professionals to help Japan fulfil its requirement for human resources.

He said Japanese automobile companies, based in Pakistan, should enhance production to export their products from Pakistan. “Japanese banks should also be encouraged to come back and initiate their operations in Pakistan,,” he said, adding that Pakistan vowed to overcome its current socio-economic challenges.

According to the Presidency, the Japanese Ambassador said Pakistan had a strategic location and a huge population, and Japanese companies were interested in these potential areas.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2024