H.E.İhsan Mustafa Yurdakul, Ambassador of Turkey in Pakistan said that his
country wanted a sustainable and long-lasting Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Pakistan to
achieve win-win results for both countries. He said that leadership of Turkey and Pakistan have
an objective from FTA that it should boost bilateral trade eventually to $5 billion and hoped
that Pakistan would finalist its list of items for FTA this month for Turkey. He said this while
addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He said that
Pak-Turkey existing bilateral trade of around $800 million was far from potential keeping in
view the fact that common market of both countries was billions of dollars. He said that
Turkish companies have invested around $1.5 billion in Pakistan and more were willing to
invest here. He said that Pakistan has great potential for FDI and Turkish companies wanted to
be the first movers to Pakistan for which Pakistan need to further improve ease of doing
business. He stressed that business community of Pakistan should not wait for FTA and make
strong efforts to promote trade ties with Turkey.

Speaking about CPEC, Turkish Envoy said that investors of his country needed more knowledge
and information about all aspects of CPEC including investment potential in its SEZs and
projects to tap all untapped potential in this project. He said that Turkey have increased 10-
fold trade with Africa which was the 2 nd largest continent of the world and urged that Pakistani
business community should rediscover Arica for trade and exports. He said that economic
power was moving towards East while Pakistan was a gateway for Asia and wished that
Pakistan would emerge as a trade hub in the region, for which it should improve its
infrastructure and connectivity. He said that he was a business friendly Ambassador and
assured that all genuine businessmen of Pakistan would be facilitated in visas for Turkey.

Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of
Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan and Turkey should sign FTA as early as possible that
would increase bilateral trade to US$ 2 billion in a couple of years. He said that Turkey have
achieved good economic growth and stressed that it should share its expertise and technology
with Pakistan that would accelerate industrialization, exports and economic growth in
Pakistan. He said that Turkey was generating $35-36 billion revenue annually from tourism
while the current Government of Pakistan was determined to promote tourism. He stressed
that Turkey should cooperate with Pakistan in developing tourism industry that would bring
multiple benefits to our economy. He said that Turkish investors should explore JVs and
investment in CPEC and other sectors of Pakistan’s economy as by investing in Pakistan they
could get easy access to Central Asian and other markets.

Tahir Abbasi Senior Vice President ICCI, Mian Akram Farid, Zafar Bakhtawari, M. Shakeel
Munir, Khalid Chaudhry, Malik Sohail Hussain and others also spoke at the occasion and shared
ideas for further improving bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and
Turkey.