Pakistan’s traditional export markets including USA, UK and Europe which are still struggling to recover from the global economic recession due to which Pakistan’s trade volume with these countries is declining and it is time that the Government should make a paradigm shift in its export strategy for focusing on Asian markets, which offers unlimited opportunities for promoting trade and exports.

This was stated by Mahfooz Elahi, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He said that in the coming years the fastest growing markets would be in the neighborhood of Pakistan instead of in distant Europe and North America. He said that foreign capital flows were also moving to the surplus economies of Asia like China, Sri Lanka and India and it was the opportune time that Government should gear up its efforts to promote trade & exports with this region.

He observed that Trade volume with US has been falling since the financial year 2008. Trade, both exports and imports, with US in FY 2008 were to the tune of $5.243 billion which started falling to $4.7 billion FY 2009 and $4.493 billion in FY 10. He further said that Asian markets were still untapped for Pakistan and added that we could achieve substantial economic dividends by promoting business linkages with Asian countries.

ICCI President was of the view that there were plenty of possibilities for mutual cooperation in the Asian region. However, to realize these objectives, all those barriers should be removed which held back Asian countries so far from capturing the extent of complementarities available in the region.

He urged the Governments to accelerate efforts for promoting regional economic integration that would create new opportunities for business community. He said that Government should adopt a strategy based on an understanding as to how Pakistan should enhance its trade share in the emerging Asian economies.

Mahfooz Elahi was of the view that Pakistan badly needs to improve its growth rate as slow growth of economy was hampering employment opportunities and increasing poverty. He said that improving trade linkages with Asian economies would help Pakistan in accelerating its economic growth.