H.E. Adam M. Tugio, Ambassador of Indonesia said that his country is to start direct flights with Pakistan in near future that would help boost people to people contacts and bilateral trade ties between the two countries. He said that Indonesia is keen to further strengthen trade and economic ties with Pakistan and launch of direct lights would be helpful in achieving this goal. He said that an Indonesian Corner would be inaugurated soon in the National Book Foundation of Pakistan that would create better awareness about Indonesia in Pakistan and improve bilateral ties between the two countries. He said this while addressing the business community during his farewell visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

H.E. Adam M. Tugio said that Pakistan and Indonesia have good potential to explore untapped potential of cooperation in Halal herbal medicines. He said that Pakistani pharmaceutical products are quite affordable and can penetrate the Indonesian market. He said that Indonesia would organize a Pakistan-ASEAN specific expo in Jakarta next year and the Pakistani business community should participate in it. He lauded the ICCI for sending its delegation to attend a trade expo in Indonesia and stressed that ICCI should send its regular delegations to Indonesia to explore all untapped areas of business collaboration between the private sectors of two countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Indonesia and the ASEAN region offer a lot of potential to Pakistan and stressed that Pakistan should focus on these countries for trade and exports. He said that ICCI would encourage more trade delegations to Indonesia to explore new business opportunities with it. He said that Indonesian investors should also be encouraged to invest in Pakistan’s tourism infrastructure and other sectors. He said that Pakistan, Indonesia and Nigeria are big markets of Muslim world and they should sign an FTA to strengthen their trade ties that would bring prosperity to their nations. He reaffirmed ICCI’s commitment to strengthen liaison with the Indonesian Embassy to improve business linkages between the private sectors of both countries.

Faad Waheed, Senior Vice President ICCI lauded the efforts of H.E. Adam M. Tugio for improving trade ties between Indonesia and Pakistan and hoped that his successor would take forward these efforts to bring both countries even closer. He highlighted Pakistan’s prospective industries for cooperation with Indonesia including IT, tourism, pharmaceuticals, textiles, cooking oil and others.

Engr. Azhar ul Islam Zafar, Vice President ICCI briefed the Indonesian Ambassador about the successful recent visit of ICCI delegation to Indonesia and thanked them for the great hospitality extended by the Indonesian authorities. Hamayun Kabir, Faseeh ullah Khan, Malik Mohsin Khalid and others also spoke on the occasion and shared useful proposals to further improve bilateral cooperation between the two countries.