Malaysia a huge market for Pakistani salt: envoy

KARACHI: Malaysia is a huge market for Pakistani salt, as Pakistan possesses second largest salt mines after Canada, said Muhammad Nafees Zakaria, high commissioner-designate of Pakistan to Malaysia, on Monday.

Visiting the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), where he attended a meeting of Pak-Malaysia Business Council held under the chairmanship of FPCCI president Zubair Tufail, he agreed to explore the potential of joint ventures in the establishment of hotel industry and real estate in Pakistan in collaboration with the Malaysian investors.

Tufail in his address of welcome suggested the Pakistani envoy in Malaysia to invite Malaysian investors to establish industrial units in the special economic zones being established under
the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), allowing 10-years exemption
from income tax to such industries.

He also urged the government of Pakistan to provide a level-playing field to Pakistani entrepreneurs, as well in duty-free import of raw materials. The Chinese entrepreneurs should also be restricted to import the raw material available, he added.

Bashir Jan Muhammad, chairman of the Pak-Malaysia Business Council of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that he has been clamoring for long to establish an export display centre in the Pakistan’s Embassy in Malaysia to create awareness about Pakistan’s trade potential among the Malaysian counterparts.

S M Muneer proposed that commercial counselors in all the Pakistan’s embassies throughout the world be appointed from the business community, as the performance of the bureaucratic commercial counselor has not been satisfactory in boosting the trade between their respective countries.

Citing his own example as the chief executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), he recalled that prior to 2013, the authority was plunged into mega corruption of
Rs13 billion scandals, involving high profile political and bureaucratic personalities who are now facing trials in the honorable high courts.