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FAISALABAD, Jun 08 (APP): Pakistan and Turkiye must adopt a focused approach to enhance cooperation particularly in the field of IT, AI, education, health and tourism to increase bilateral trade from $1 billion to $5 billion, said Turkish Ambassador in Pakistan Dr Mehmet Pacaci.
Addressing the business community in the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) here on Saturday, he said that both countries enjoy exceptional cordial relations at government to government, people to people and business to business level but despite all these plus points, the volume of the bilateral trade is dwindling at only 1 billion dollar. “We must collaborate with each other to utilize the untapped potential”, he asserted.
He also mentioned the humanitarian aid extended by Pakistan during the earthquake in Turkiye and said that both countries are supporting each other particularly on Kashmir and Cyprus issues.
He said that Turkiye was also dolling out liberal educational scholarships to Pakistani students while steps are also being taken for the exchange of faculty members.
Earlier, Dr Khurram Tariq, President FCCI, welcomed the Turkish Ambassador and his team. He briefly introduced Faisalabad and said that FCCI was playing its role in resolving issues being faced by its members in addition to striving hard for the socio-economic development of Faisalabad.
“We intend to create an IT and AI conducive eco-system which could not only benefit this city but to Pakistan and even to the Islamic world also”, he added.
About Pak-Turkiye relations, he expressed satisfaction but urged to enhance the volume of bilateral trade proportionate to friendly relationships. He said that Istanbul airport is one of the busiest airports in the world while Turkiye is making tremendous progress in the field of technology.
He said that he was trying to promote Turkish technology in Faisalabad and hence there must be a Turkish Commercial Office in Faisalabad to give quantum jump to Turkish technology.
He also mentioned the joint venture of Ralle Cheese Unit in Faisalabad and said that its entire production is exported.
Senior Vice President FCCI, Dr Sajjad Arshad, in his concluding remarks, thanked the Turkish envoy and urged to introduce liberal visa regime for FCCI members and their families.
Mian Muhammad Adrees, former President FCCI and FPCCI, also endorsed the idea and said that the visa recommendation mechanism could be implemented initially for a few months on a trial basis to further fine-tune it in accordance with the requirements of the Turkish embassy.
Dr Khurram Tariq said that FCCI was already implementing a visa recommendation regime with the Chinese embassy and on the same pattern, it could be launched with the Turkish embassy.
He also assured to provide double guarantee in addition to fulfilling other required formalities.
Mr. Nurettin Demir, Commercial Counselor of Turkiye, said that the consulate was not issuing visas but the embassy was providing visas to the business community on a top priority basis.
Director Ambassadorial Office Turkiye Mr. Ghazanfar Mehmood, Vice President FCCI Hajji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli, Executive Member Muhammad Azhar Chaudhary, Engineer Ehtisham Javaid, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, Maqsood Akhtar Butt, Mian Muhammad Tayyab, Hajji Gulzar Ahmad, Engineer Ahmad Hasan, Dr Habib Aslam Gaba, Hajji Abdur Rauf, Amjad Khawaja, Rehan Naseem Bharara and Muhammad Abdullah Qadri were also present during the meeting.