Indonesia along with ASEAN countries are huge markets with great potential for Pakistani products and businessmen should focus on these countries to promote trade and exports.
He was addressing business community at Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) here on Friday.Indonesian ambassador urges businessmen to explore potential of ASEAN countries.The ambassador said that Indonesia abolished import duties of up to 30 percent on 20 Pakistani products in a trade deal to secure future of more than one billion dollars of palm oil exports to the south Asian economy that is shifting to a new supplier on long-awaited tariff concessions. The Indonesian government has long been mulling import duty concessions for 20 tariff lines, including rice, mangoes and value-added textiles, under the revised preferential trade agreement (PTA) originally signed with Pakistan in February 2012.Previously, Pakistan provides preferential tariffs to 313 imports from Indonesia that allows 232 imports from Pakistan under reduced duty structure.
Tracing the relations between the two countries, he said that it was friendly and cordial since the inception of two countries. However, now we should make serious efforts to translate these relations into economic terms. He said that volume of bilateral trade between the two countries is 2.18 billion dollars which is far less than the existing potential however it is maximum incase of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries adding that no doubt the balance of trade is in favour of Indonesia but the real issue is bilateral trade as in case of China-Indonesia trade, it is in favor of China. He said that in bilateral trade, both countries get benefits. However, he thinks that the export form Pakistan should increase to a considerable level. He further said that law and order situation has improved in Pakistan and it will definitely have positive impact on its exports to Indonesia. Quoting CPEC, he said that it will attract foreign investment and all regional countries will enjoy its benefits. He said that Indonesia is a country with huge population of 250 million. "Our domestic market is very strong which has provided us a solid base for speedy economic growth", he added.
Khawaja Badar Munir SVP said that both countries had inked Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in 2012 to enhance their trade. It played a major role in enhancing bilateral trade and the trade volume that was only 700 million dollars in 2010 jumped to 2.18 billion in 2015. He said that Indonesia is a major country exporting Palm Oil to Pakistan. During last 4 years the Indonesian exports to Pakistan has swollen from 30% to 83%. He further told that in 2015 Pakistan imported 2.1 million tons of Palm Oil, out of which 70% came from Indonesia.
He said both countries should provide better market access to each other’s private sectors, grant more tariff concessions and remove all non-tariff barriers that will help in promoting bilateral trade up to actual potential.The meeting was also attended by Mian Rashid Iqbal, Aasim Saeed Sheikh,Mirza Ali Ahmed, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Qureshi,Aurangzen Alamgir, Khawaja Muhammad Farooq, Bakhsgh Elahi, Syed Saqib Ali, Khurram Javed Butt.
