Maj. Gen. (Retd) Nadir Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Ukraine assured that he would work to identify new business opportunities for Pakistan in Ukraine and facilitate the business community in promoting trade with Ukrainian counterparts. He said that lots of business and investment opportunities would be available in Ukraine during its reconstruction phase and stressed that the entrepreneurs and investors of Pakistan should be ready to capture them. He said this while addressing the business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI).

Maj. Gen. (Retd) Nadir Khan said that Pakistan-Ukraine bilateral trade is less than US$ 1 billion and trade balance is highly in favor of Ukraine as Pakistan’s imports are over US$ 700 million and exports are around US$ 70-80 million. He stressed that the business community of Pakistan should make efforts to export more products to Ukraine to improve trade balance. He assured that he would take all possible measures to facilitate them in promoting trade and exports with Ukraine.

Speaking at the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan can export many products to Ukraine including pharmaceuticals, surgical & medical equipment, textiles, cutlery, construction material, IT products, sports goods, leather products, fruits and emphasized that the embassy of Pakistan in Ukraine should cooperate in promoting business linkages between the private sectors of both countries to explore new avenues of trade promotion. He said that Pakistan needs to boost exports to improve its foreign exchange reserves, which have tumbled down to below US$ 3 billion and stressed that Commercial Sections of Pakistan in foreign countries should identify the demand of Pakistani products in foreign markets to improve exports. He said that direct airlinks between Pakistan and Ukraine are important to promote B2B and P2P relations between the two countries.

Engr. Muhammad Azhar ul Islam Zafar Vice President ICCI said that Pakistani commercial counselors should be given annual export targets and their performance should be analyzed on the basis of achievement of given targets. He said that some commercial counselors should be taken from private sector, who can help in improving exports.

Zafar Bakhtawari, Ameer Hamza, Ch. Javed Iqbal, Maqsood Tabish, Ashfaq Chatha, Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh, Khalid Chaudhry, Nasira Ali and others also spoke at the occasion and gave useful proposals to increase trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Ukraine.