Egypt keen to enhance trade ties with Pakistan: envoy

ICCI president says Pakistan and Egypt should sign a Free Trade Agreement to enhance bilateral trade

ISLAMABAD: Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan Tarek Mohamed Hussein Dahroug on Tuesday said that Egypt is keen to further enhance bilateral trade relations with Pakistan.

The Egyptian ambassador while addressing the business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) said that both countries have good potential to export many high quality products to each other at competitive prices.

He said that by enhancing trade cooperation with Egypt, Pakistan can get easy access to many African markets including Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Algeria.

He said that Pakistan and Egypt should focus on exporting competitively priced products to each other.

The Egytian ambassador said that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed in the past for the establishment of Pakistan-Egypt Business Council, however, no progress has been made so far. He urged both countries to make target oriented efforts to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome for the project.

Speaking at the occasion, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that Pakistan and Egypt enjoy historically cordial and friendly relations which should be translated into better trade and economic relations.

He said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and Egypt in 2017 stood at $154 million, which was less given the market size of both countries urging that both sides should focus on developing strong linkages between their private sectors in order to explore all untapped areas of trade promotion.

He added that Pakistan and Egypt should consider signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which would remove hurdles and boost trade between the two countries.

Ahmed Waheed said that Pakistan can export many products to Egypt including rice, marble, engineering goods, agro-processed products, surgical instruments, pharmaceuticals and sports goods.

He said that both countries can potentially cooperate in areas including agricultural products, engineering goods, construction and building material, tourism, shipping, fertilisers, chemicals, textiles products, leather goods, medical and surgical items and pharmaceuticals.

He further said that many Pakistani products are entering the Egyptian market with third country labels and urged that the Pakistani government should cooperate with its private sector to promote local Pakistani brands in Egypt in order to realise better results.

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