Salman Athar, Pakistan Ambassador-designate to Lebanon visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and held a detailed meeting with the business community to explore ways and means for enhancing trade and economic ties between Pakistan and Lebanon. He said that Pakistan can export a wide range of products to Lebanon and stressed that the business community should accelerate efforts to tap the Lebanese market for promoting trade and exports. He assured that he would extend them all possible cooperation for enhancing business relations with Lebanon.
Salman Athar said that the current Government of Pakistan was focusing on trade diplomacy to strengthen the economy and a proactive approach was needed to explore new opportunities in foreign markets for exports promotion. He said that due to the Covid situation, he would try to arrange online meetings between the business communities of Pakistan and Lebanon so that they could interact and explore new avenues of mutual collaboration. He said that both countries have good potential to cooperate in construction, tourism, power, education and many other sectors for mutual benefit.
Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry briefed Salman Athar about the prospective areas of trade and economic cooperation with Lebanon. He said that Pakistan could export many products to Lebanon including marble & granite, mangoes, pharmaceuticals, surgical instruments, leather & sports goods, textile products, carpets, pink salt and emphasized that the Pakistan Embassy in Lebanon should play role to identify business leads and share such information with trade bodies in Pakistan so that the business community could capitalize on them. He underscored the importance of cooperation between the countries in order to increase bilateral trade and investment. He said that Lebanese investors should also be apprised of the opportunities of investment and JVs in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy. He expressed full confidence in Salman Athar to initiate engagement between business communities of both sides and assured him of his support to improve trade ties between the two countries.
Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh Senior Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Naveed Malik former Senior Vice President, Muhammad Shabbir, Akhtar Hussain, Saeed Khan, Ch. Ashraf Farzand and others also spoke at the occasion and highlighted many areas for promoting trade cooperation with Lebanon. They said that both sides should encourage frequent exchange of trade delegation to expand and deepen the business and investment relations.