Italian business delegation to visit Pakistan: Ambassador

ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (APP):Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorva said on Wednesday that Pakistan was now gaining importance and credibility for business and investment and an Italian business delegation would visit Pakistan in near future for Business to business meetings.

He was addressing business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Italian envoy said that Pakistan had brightest entrepreneurs and they should focus on branding of their products to enhance exports.

He said that many foreign companies were importing Pakistani products and by rebranding them, were selling them at ten times more prices.

He said that by branding of products, Pakistan could make many times increase in its exports.
He said that Pakistani companies should upgrade to compete more effectively in the world markets.
He was optimistic that economy of Pakistan was improving and had great prospects to emerge as a strong economy of the region.

He said Italy had strong defence cooperation with Pakistan and its trade with Pakistan was improving.
Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, ICCI said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and Italy was around $1.2 billion last year, which was not reflective of the actual potential of both countries.

He said that many Pakistani products including textiles and fabrics, leather products, sports goods, surgical instruments, footwear and others could find good market in Italy.

ICCI President said that Italy had huge number of SMEs and it could cooperate with Pakistan in setting up its SMEs on the same model.

He identified IT, agriculture, marble and granite, automobiles etc. as potential areas of cooperation between the two countries. He said that Italian investors should come to Pakistan with technology transfer to setup JVs in areas of interest.

He stressed that both countries should encourage frequent exchange of trade delegations to explore new avenues of mutual cooperation that would further increase trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Italy.

Tahir Abbasi Senior Vice President, Saif ur Rahman Vice President, ICCI, Muhammad Shakeel Munir Chairman ICCI Diplomatic Committee and others also spoke at the occasion and said that ICCI would like to work with Italian embassy for developing strong business linkages between the private sectors of the both countries in order to further enhance bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Italy.