Germany favours allowing market access to Pakistan: envoy

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Germany favours allowing market access to Pakistan: envoy

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD (May 05 2010): Germany is in favour of allowing market access to Pakistan and in the next EU Pakistan summit conference, the matter will be accorded top priority, said Michael Koch, Ambassador Federal Republic of Germany. He was addressing the textile exporters at Pakistan Textile Exporter Association here on Tuesday.

He said that summit would be held on June 4th, 2010. Germany is fully aware of the problems being confronted by Pakistan due to the war against terrorism, but we are not in a position to make any decision unilaterally. We being a member of 27-members European Union are living in a much-legalised environment and we have to accept the final decision of EU. He said that Pakistan should make a good case for the summit to win over the support of maximum EU members.

Dr Michael Koch said that Germany is one of the important trade partners of Pakistan. We have invested 350 million dollars in Pakistan with 1.7 billion trade during the last year. This is not enough, both countries have potential to increase the trade volume and we must carve out ways and means to exploit the available potential. Regarding travel advisories, he clarified that it is applicable only in case of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan excluding Quetta.

He particularly quoted the visit of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to Germany during last December in which he inked investment protection treaty. It was an important document to convince German investors to invest in Pakistan. He also touched upon prevailing energy crisis and said that Germany was ready to help Pakistan to overcome the energy-related issues. In this connection, he said that German investors have recently visited Islamabad and this visit proved very successful.

He also assured PTEA to provide a complete list of German entrepreneurs willing to invest in Pakistan in renewable energy resources. He also touched upon the Visa related issue, and said that generally visas are issued within 11 to 12 days. However he asked the genuine travellers to file their cases well in time to avoid any complication or delay due to any clarification. He said that a covering letter from PTEA or Chamber would also help us in issuing visa to genuine businessmen, he added.

Earlier vice chairman PTEA, Sohail Pasha welcomed the guest and said that Europe and USA have been major destinations of Pakistani Textile Exports and our exporters have built good repute for themselves in home textiles and made ups maintaining excellent quality and competitive prices.

Pakistani exports to Europe were greater in volume five years back; he said our share in the European Union trade was more than 24 percent. However, these exports are showing declining trend ever since the textile quota phase out in 2005. Lack of duty free market access, import duties and denial of GSP plus in European Union were also among the factors contributing towards this decline, he said.

We are very highly appreciative of German Embassy in Islamabad for granting visas to our exporters, he said. He hoped that this cordial relationship and facilitation would continue in future as well. He further suggested that frequent exchange of trade delegations between our two countries should be increased and Pakistani exporters should be invited to participate in trade fairs in Germany while the German businessmen should visit Pakistani business centres. Later on former chairmen PTEA Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmad and Mian Azhar Majeed Sheikh presented PTEA memento to the guests.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010