H.E. Mr. Nawaf Saeed Al-Malkiy, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia said that Pakistan possessed everything for growth and has great potential for business and economic growth that needed to be highlighted more effectively to attract foreign investors. He said that Saudi Arabia wanted to further deepen and strengthen its trade ties with Pakistan as both countries have great potential to promote bilateral trade in many areas. He said that Pakistan was a very important country for the whole Muslim Ummah as it was a nuclear power and Saudi Arabia would stand with it in every critical situation. He said this while addressing business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Muhammad Ahmed Asiri, Commercial Attaché of Saudi Embassy was also present at the occasion.

The Saudi envoy said that Pakistan has great potential for tourism and it needed to improve its infrastructure to attract foreign tourists. He said that consistency in policies and conducive environment would further promote local and foreign investment in Pakistan. He said that Prince Muhammad Bin Salman had announced to become Ambassador of Pakistan and he was playing that role. He said that wrong and negative perception about Pakistan in foreign world was needed to be changed to unlock its real economic potential. He said that from January 2021, the process of exchange of trade delegations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia would be restored that would further improve bilateral trade and economic ties between the two countries.

Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Saudi Arabia’s investors should explore JVs and investment in CPEC that would also provide them easy access to Central Asian markets. He said that the cordial relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia should be transformed into growing trade and economic relations as the current volume of bilateral trade between the two countries was not reflective of their actual potential. He said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were doing trade in limited items and they should focus on direct trade with diversification of trade items to further enhance trade volume. He said many Pakistani products including value-added textiles, surgical instruments, sports goods, organic foods, financial services, insurance & IT services and entertainment products could find good market in Saudi Arabia.

Tahir Abbasi, Senior Vice President and Saif ur Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI thanked the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia for visiting ICCI and said that Vision-2030 of Saudi Araba and CPEC offered great potential for JVs and investment between the two countries. He said frequent exchange of trade delegations and organizing single country exhibitions would help in improving trade relations. Malik Sohail Hussain, Muhammad Aslam Khokhar, Karim Aziz Malik, Usman Khalid, Abbasi Hashmi, Khalid Chaudhry and others also spoke at the occasion.