Mujtaba Paracha, Ambassador-designate to Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the WTO, Geneva (Switzerland) visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and addressing the local business community assured that he would play role for promoting Pakistan’s trade exports with foreign countries. He said that Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to WTO was focused on trade promotion and he would try to maintain liaison with private sector to update it about the new opportunities for exports promotion. He said that the increase in preferential arrangements and free trade areas between some members of WTO was eroding market access and stressed that Pakistan’s private sector should adopt a proactive approach to find new markets for improving Pakistan’s exports. Mujtaba Paracha briefed the business community about the role of WTO which was the only international organization dealing with the rules of trade between the nation in order to facilitate smooth trade flow in world markets. He said that the current government was sending trade and investment officers in Pakistan’s foreign missions abroad with set targets as promoting exports was its high priority. He said that government has done lot of work on fisheries, e-commerce and other areas and assured that he would try to find new opportunities for private sector to further enhance Pakistan’s exports. Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan needed drastic efforts to boost exports for improving its economy and stressed that government should take measures to uplift the exporters. He said that cooperation of Pakistan’s foreign missions with chambers of commerce was important in identifying new markets for exportable products. He said that the Ambassador-designate should share information about top imports of Switzerland with ICCI so that its members could take benefit of potential business opportunities. Tahir Abbasi Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan needed to diversity its exports and urged that foreign missions should play active role in finding out non-traditional markets for Pakistani products. They said that Pakistan could learn a lot from Switzerland to promote its tourism sector and desired that the Ambassador-designate should cooperate in such efforts. Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi Vice President FPCCI, Zahid Maqbool, Muhammad Aslam Khaokhar, Abbas Hashmi, Naeem Paracha, Muhammad Naveed Malik, Khalid Chaudhry, Mehboob Ahmed Khan, Izzat Bukhsh and others were also present at the occasion.