LAHORE, June 21: German GEA Export Group General Manager Peter Baasch has said that there was a vast scope of joint ventures between Pakistan and his country.

Talking to the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority chief executive officer Shahab Khawaja and dairy sector stakeholders here on Wednesday, along with his six-member delegation, Peter Baasch said the GEA group was one of the leaders in dairy process engineering, equipment and plant engineering and had established its office in Pakistan.

Apprising the delegation of the strategy evolved for dairy development in the country, Smeda chief said livestock production was an integral part of Pakistan’s agriculture sector, playing a vital role in the national economy. The agriculture sector was contributing about 50 per cent of the national economy and 11 per cent of the GDP, he said.

He said an estimated 30 to 35 million rural areas’ people were engaged in raising livestock, which provided

a significant portion of their family income.

He said the government had recognised the importance of dairy and livestock sector in the federal budget, and decided to develop it on priority basis. The prime minister’s call for bringing about a ‘white revolution’ in the country by establishing model dairy farms reflected the government’s commitment to the sector, Mr Khwaja said.

He informed the German team that the sector had been exempted from sales tax and customs duty, and dairy and livestock equipment could now be imported without duty. Customs duty on refrigerated vans had also been reduced from 60 to 30 per cent, he added.