ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: South Africa and Pakistan have agreed to increase economic cooperation in all fields particularly in mining, steel, auto, chemical and plastics, engineering and technology.

This understanding was reached during a meeting held here on Tuesday between officials of Engineering Development Board (EDB) and the visiting six-member South African delegation led by Willem van der Spuy, Director Department of Trade and Industry, Bilateral Trade Relations – Asia.

An official announcement said the delegation underlined the importance of specific work programme in these sectors so that the relationship could be built on sustainable basis.

The delegation assured that South Africa was keen to build partnership with Pakistan on the basis of South-South cooperation policy of the country and would like to increase interactions between the two governments and business communities.

The South African delegation was visiting Pakistan after eight years’ gap.

EDB General Manger Zahid J. Yaqub gave a detailed presentation covering macroeconomic indicators, investment environment, efficiency improvement initiatives, production trend in automotive products, export processing zones and potential sectors for enhancing cooperation.

He informed the delegation that a steel policy was under preparation covering incentives to investors for steel-making at different parts of the country and requested for South African help in steel production.

He added that Pakistan had learnt a lot from South Africa in auto sector and formulated its new auto development programme based on pre-announced tariff policy, successfully implemented by South Africa along with other incentives.

The meeting was informed that Pakistan had prepared an aggressive African initiative policy for increasing its export to the region. As a first step, Pakistan will attend Nairobi Fair scheduled in October 2007 so that its products could be promoted in African countries.