ISLAMABAD: William “Chip” Laitinen, Counselor for Economic Affairs at the US Embassy in Islamabad visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with his team and said that his country was keen to cooperate with Pakistan in energy sector. Addressing the business community, he said many US companies were interested to explore Pakistan for export of LNG and added that Pakistan could overcome its energy problem by developing close collaboration with USA. He said USA was one of the largest export destinations for Pakistan and bilateral trade between the two countries was improving. He said USAID was working in Pakistan to contribute for improving its economy and added that Pakistan has taken most advantages of US’s GSP scheme as its exports to USA were improving. He said US wanted continuous engagement with Pakistan for economic benefit of both countries and added that people to people contacts were important to realize these objectives. Speaking at the occasion, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Pakistan and USA have a broad and multi-faceted partnership in areas ranging from education to energy to trade and investment. However, bilateral trade between the two countries was still not up to their real potential. He stressed that private sectors of both countries should be given enhanced role to improve trade relations. He said GSP scheme of US should be further extended for Pakistan. He said more Pakistani products should be given easy market access in USA so that Pakistan could improve its exports. He said Pakistan was an agricultural country and US should cooperate with it in upgrading its agriculture sector on modern lines. He said CPEC has created many new business prospects in Pakistan and US investors should explore possibilities of joint ventures and investment in this mega project. He said Pakistan was a potential market for pharmaceutical industry and emphasized that US should cooperate with Pakistan in establishing modern pharma research labs in our country. Khalid Malik, Senior Vice President, ICCI said that Pakistan and USA have good potential to enhance cooperation in many fields and both countries should facilitate private sectors in trade promotion efforts. Tahir Ayub Vice President ICCI urged that US should transfer its agriculture machinery, technology and expertise to Pakistan for improving agricultural productivity. Khalid Javed, Tariq Sadiq, Muhammad Akram Farid, Mian Shaukat Masud, Nasir Qureshi, Zafar Bakhtawari, Ejaz Abbasi, Sh. Amir Waheed and others also spoke at the occasion. Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2017.