Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Finland is ready to cooperate with Pakistan in health, education, clean technology, renewable energy, water management, waste to energy solutions and many other fields, said Rauli Suikannen, ambassador of Finland.

Addressing the business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Suikannen said that to realise these objectives, facilitating regular interactions between the private sectors of Finland and Pakistan was essential.

He said that Finland was poised to achieve highest economic growth in Europe this year and Pakistan could achieve good economic benefits by enhancing cooperation with Finland. He said Finland has a comprehensive vocational trainings system and it could cooperate with Pakistan for trainings and skills development of its people. He said Finland was a strong supporter of EU’s GSP Plus status for Pakistan. He said Pakistan was mostly exporting textiles products to EU under this facility and it should focus on other products for achieving better results. He said Finland wanted to enhance local presence in Pakistan and would try to open its Embassy in Pakistan in future.

Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and Finland was not up to the real potential of both countries and they should focus on frequent exchange of trade delegations to identify new areas of mutual cooperation. He said that law & order situation has improved while CPEC has created plenty of business and investment opportunities in Pakistan. He said it was right time for Finnish investors to explore Pakistan for JVs and investment.

He said 9 Special Economic Zones would be set up under CPEC in Pakistan and Finnish investors should invest in SEZs with latest technology. He identified engineering, agriculture, energy, mining, telecommunication, biotechnology, health and education as potential areas of mutual cooperation between the two countries. He said organising B2B meetings was the best way to explore business matchmakings.

Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President ICCI said that private sectors of both countries should work on identifying collaborative models to further strengthen trade relations. Ms. Fatima Azeem, Zia A Zikria, Muhammad Shakeel Munir and other also spoke at the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, October 4^th 2017.