LAHORE, Dec 15: The ambassador of South Korea, Kim Jooseok, has expressed his optimism that the volume of trade between Pakistan and South Korea is bound to increase if consistency in policies continues for a few more years.

“The economic reforms initiated by the government have already started yielding results and the South Korean businessmen are quite impressed with the economic growth of Pakistan,” he said while addressing the executive committee members of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Friday.

LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh, senior vice president Yaqoob Tahir Izhar, former President Shahzada Alam Mannoo, Mian Misbahur Rehman and former senior vice president Sohail Lashari also spoke.

The Ambassador said that Pakistan was fast becoming a safe heaven for foreign investment. However, he said, non-availability of required trade-related information was the biggest hurdle in the way of South Korean investment in Pakistan.

The diplomat, while identifying a number of areas for mutual cooperation, said that there was a need for the technology transfer as both the countries have a lot to learn from each other.

He said there was a big potential in the fruit business as Pakistani business community could avail opportunities in this sector.

He admitted that the Koreans had learnt a lot from Pakistan in the agriculture sector in 60s and urged the LCCI to arrange a sector-specific delegation to South Korea so that Pakistani businessmen could have a first-hand knowledge about opportunities there.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh suggested that the Korean industrialists should set up Special Economic Zones or Korean City in Pakistan for putting up independent or joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts.

He said that South Korea was one of the important trading partners of Pakistan sharing 1.79 per cent of Pakistan's total trade, 1.16 per cent of Pakistan's exports and 2.16 per cent of Pakistan's imports in the year 2005-06. —APP