‘Kyrgyzstan wants strong trade ties with Pakistan’

LAHORE: Kyrgyzstan wants to establish strong trade & economic relations with Pakistan and is ready to sign MOUs in textile and pharmaceutical sectors.
These views were expressed by the Charge d’ Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Sagynbek Ibraev while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz, Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi, former president Mian Muzaffar Ali and Executive Committee Members also spoke on the occasion.
The diplomat said that Pakistan is an important country of South Asia and could help Kyrgyzstan to establish relations with Central Asian States.
He said that in a bid to promote two-way trade, an exhibition of Pakistani textile and pharmaceutical products could be arranged in Kyrgyzstan. It would attract attention of Kyrgyz customers to the high quality and vast verity Pakistani products. He said Pakistani products have great demand in Kyrgyzstan. Pakistani businessmen should come forward and avail the opportunity to the maximum.
He said that the Kyrgyz Republic has a stable political climate and the government understands that foreign private participation and investment are essential to accelerate development and stimulate the economy. He said investing in Kyrgyz Republic is safe, profitable and easy as the main factors are the liberal trade regime, full protection of investments and unlimited repatriation of profits, currency exchange freedom, low business costs, an educated workforce and direct access to state authorities.
He said that Kyrgyz Republic attaches a great importance to development of economical cooperation with Pakistan. “We have a good agreement base between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan in the area of economical cooperation.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that despite the fact that Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan enjoy friendly and cordial relations, our business and economic ties have not been adequately developed. He said that the volume of

bilateral trade between the two countries is hardly dollar 1.1 million that does not match the potential exists in both countries.
Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that very few items are being traded as Pakistan exports pharmaceutical products, electro-medical apparatus, fruit juices and medicinal plants etc. The imports from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan are some aircraft parts, synthetic coloring materials and tools etc.
“We have been talking about exploiting the untapped potential of trade in Central Asian Republics but no significant results have been ever produced. The main issue is to transport the tradable items between Pakistan and these republics”, the LCCI President added.
He said that Kyrgyz and China share a long border. Once the Pak-China Economic Corridor Project gets completed, it will become much convenient for both the countries to explore each other markets on regular basis.
He said that agriculture and livestock, perhaps is one of the dynamic sectors, common between the economies of the two countries, where we can pool our resources and expertise to yield maximum results.
Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that joint efforts will foster the pace of trade volume between Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Organizing single country exhibitions on reciprocal basis, exchange of socio-cultural programs and arranging country weeks can prove vital tools for introduction and marketing of products in each other’s countries.