Tehran business delegates visit PBIT

[SHAMK9]

LAHORE: A 24-member delegation of Tehran Chambers of Commerce Industries, Mines & Agriculture, led by Yahya Al Eshagh visited Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) here Wednesday.

The Iranian delegates represent varied sectors including agriculture, food, light engineering textile manufacturing, energy, automobiles, leather, petrochemicals and general traders.

Representatives from Export Promotion Bank of Iran, United Bank of Iran and Iranian Consul General Hussain Bani Asadi were also present in the meeting.

While, the PBIT Vice Chairman Miftah Ismail briefed them about the areas of potential collaboration which included agriculture, livestock and mining and energy.

The most promising avenues of collaboration funneled down to energy production through coal based power plants as well as solar radiation and livestock processing, he added.

However, additional meetings with concerned departments for the delegates have been set up as well to take further negotiations between Tehran and Punjab for materializing investments in energy and livestock sectors.

This is the first time such a large business delegation from Tehran visited Lahore, he said, adding that provinces of Tehran and Punjab bear quite a few similarities to each other in terms of being the industrial centers and economic capitals of their country, as well as containing the country's major workforce.

Miftah Ismail said that Punjab's contribution to national GDP is over 55 percent and being the most populated province in the country, with an estimated population of 98 million, (55 percent of Pakistan's total population), it is the major provider of workforce in the country.

Punjab has more than 58,000 industrial units producing diverse products producing textiles, sports goods, heavy machinery, light engineering goods, electrical appliances, pharmaceuticals, cutlery, surgical instruments, cement, automotive parts, sugar, cement etc.

On this occasion, Eshagh said that standing 56th by the size of its GDP globally, Tehran is the country's economic capital contributing, on average, more than 20 percent to Iran's GDP. About 30 percent of Iran's workforce resides in Tehran, and 45 percent of Iran's large industrial firms are located in Tehran.
Tehran business delegates visit PBIT