The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was working to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Pakistan that would create many new opportunities for the entrepreneurs of both countries to promote bilateral trade and exports. This was said by Rashid Abdul Rehman Al Ali, Deputy Head of Mission of UAE Embassy while addressing the business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI).

He said that he was quite optimistic about the economic future of Pakistan as FDI from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and China was coming to Pakistan. He termed the holding of first-ever Pakistan Minerals Summit a positive development for the country. He said that UAE wanted to further promote investment with Pakistan with focus on agriculture, textiles, marble & tiles, gemstone, mining and petroleum. He stressed for further strengthening government-to-government and business-to-business relations between the two countries to explore new avenues of business matchmaking. He said that Pakistan was most the favorable country for tourism and an improved tourism infrastructure would attract more tourists.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan and UAE enjoyed cordial relations, which were based on common foundations of history, religion and culture. He said that UAE has always helped Pakistan in difficult times, which showed its sincerity with our country. He said that UAE was one of the major trading partners of Pakistan with a bilateral trade of over USD 10 billion and added that there was great potential to further increase this figure by regular exchange of trade delegations. He said that UAE’s investors should invest in Pakistan’s tourism sector to further upgrade its infrastructure.

Zafar Bakhtawari, former President ICCI and Secretary General UBG said that ICCI would like to organize a Pak-UAE business forum in ICCI auditorium in collaboration with UAE Embassy. The UAE DHM assured his cooperation to hold the said event in a successful manner.

Khalid Iqbal Malik Group Leader, Ch. Javed Iqbal, Maqsood Tabish, Babar Chaudhry and others also spoke on the occasion and shared useful ideas to further strengthen Pak-UAE bilateral trade and economic relations.