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50,000 Pakistanis registered for trade with China
KARACHI (updated on: 2010-12-23 22:22:19 PST):
At least 50,000 Pakistanis are registered with the government of China for official bilateral trade.
"But we have failed to tap the potential of bilateral trade with China so far," said Zahid Qamar, President of Pakistan-China Citizens' Association.
Talking to APP here on Thursday, he said that Sino-Pak trade was around over dollars 7 billion but it was not in favour of Pakistan due to 98 percent exports from China.
"We have great scope to tap the potential by exporting cotton, cotton fabric, marble, marble craft, seafood, leather, leather goods, leather garments and rice," he added.
Qamar said it was very pathetic of the situation that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) needs to consult the people directly associated with trade of various goods with China.
"Even KCCI - our Karachi based Chamber of Trade and Industry has to do research work and send trade delegations to China," he added.
The Association president said that 4,000 Pakistani traders visit China every month and return back with contracts worth millions of dollars for import of various goods not available in Pakistan.
He said that the traders have even failed to take advantage of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed by the two countries in 2006.
"The TDAP needs to create awareness about the business opportunities in China," Zahid Qamar said.
Zahid, who has over 40 years of association with trade in China, said that the TDAP needs to set up a separate desk for trade potentials in China.
China is competing in almost all the major sectors of Pakistan's potential export areas. Secondly, Pakistani business community remained confined to their established export destinations that is, United States and Western Europe. They focused little on diversifying the export base and exploring other areas/regions for increasing their exports, he maintained.
Referring to the recent visit of Chinese premier's to Pakistan, he said the business community of Pakistan is highly admirer of success of Chinese economic model and perceives revolutionary socio-economic development of China as an outcome of visionary policies of the leadership of China and, which has transformed it into 3rd largest economy of the world, he added.
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