Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Muhammad Sanjrani, on Thursday, said that there were enormous prospects for the different countries to invest in Gwadar and various other projects being executed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and called upon the envoys that their countries should benefit from the opportunities for enhancing bilateral economic cooperation with Pakistan.

Chairman of the Upper House, while having separate meetings with the Ambassador of Romania, Qatar, France and High Commissioner of Australia, said that with the improved security situation in Pakistan, investment opportunities have increased manifold in the country especially in the Gwadar region and the other projects included in the CPEC. He said that the increase in the parliamentary relations and exchange of delegations would be instrumental to explore the opportunities of economic cooperation and pave the way for enhanced bilateral trade between Pakistan and other countries.

While speaking to the Ambassador of France, Marc Barety, the Chairman Senate said that the Pakistan France Friendship Group has been renewed in the Senate of Pakistan which would be beneficial for enhancing the parliamentary ties between the two countries. He said that the Senate of Pakistan was looking for further cooperation for training of the parliamentarians and secretariat staff with regard to legislative business and support services. He appreciated the efforts of France government for offering scholarships to the Pakistani students in higher education and the promotion of archaeology in Pakistan, especially the historic site of Mehrgarh. He also lauded the contribution of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for supporting projects on water scarcity in different regions of the country, training of the police officials and in other areas of mutual interest. The Ambassador of France Marc Barety said that France was following holistic approach for cooperation in different sectors of Pakistan with a focus on education, training and sustainable development and would like to develop further cooperation for parliamentary linkages and people-to-people contacts.

Speaking to the Ambassador of Qatar Saqr Bin Mubarak Al-Mansouri, the Chairman Senate said that there was a good opportunity for Qatar to invest in infrastructure-related projects in Gwadar. He said that we were also looking for scholarships for the Pakistani students in different educational institutions of Qatar in addition to the job opportunities for Pakistanis as promised by the Qatar government. He said that the CPEC projects also offered many investment opportunities and Pakistani government would facilitate the investors from Qatar to benefit from the potential of economic cooperation between the two countries.

The Chairman Senate, while talking to the Ambassador of Romania Nicolae Goia, said that there was a need to further boost the parliamentary linkages between the two countries and we would be extending invitation to the Chairman Senate of Romania to lead a parliamentary delegation to Pakistan. The Chairman Senate also asked the Romanian Ambassador to pursue the investors from his country to benefit from the economic and investment opportunities in Pakistan. He said that exchange of business delegations would be beneficial to boost the existing trade between the two countries as the economic cooperation being exploited was not in accordance with its potential. He said that there was enormous potential for the Romanian investors in the areas of livestock, fisheries, textile, mining and infrastructure development in different areas of Balochistan.

In a meeting with the High Commissioner of Australia Margaret Adamson, the Chairman Senate said that Pakistan attached highest priority to its relations with Australia and it was looking forward to increased parliamentary exchanges. He said that the cooperation extended by Australia in education and development sector was laudable and Pakistan would like to extend this interaction to the other areas of mutual ties, especially promoting the parliamentary linkages. He said that the exchange of parliamentary delegations would also steer the economic cooperation.

The Chairman Senate also asked the visiting envoys to ensure the participation of their parliamentary delegations in the Asian Parliamentary Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee meeting being held at Gwadar in the last week of October.

Published in Daily Times, September 5^th 2018.