Ambassador of Indonesia in Islamabad Iwan Suyudhie Amri has said relations with Pakistan are touching new horizons, adding that bilateral relations have seen marked improvement in all fields during the last couple of years. Indonesia along with ASEAN countries is a huge market with great potential for the Pakistani products and businessmen should focus on these countries to promote trade and exports, he said while addressing the business community at the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Friday. He said Indonesia will notify the inclusion of 20 additional tariff lines in the Pakistan-Indonesia Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) by the end of November. He said Indonesia with 250 million population was the largest Muslim country and can provide easy access to Pakistan to over $2 trillion ASEAN market. The ambassador noted with satisfaction that relations between the two countries were heading in the right direction and hoped that in coming days these relations would get a further boost. He praised efforts of the RCCI for contributing greatly towards strengthening of bilateral relations through business opportunity conferences and exhibitions. He assured full cooperation and assistance for the upcoming International Rawal Expo 2019. The ambassador assured that the embassy would share trade inquiries and business related information with the RCCI so that its members could take advantage of the available opportunities for promoting trade and exports with Indonesia. Speaking at the occasion, Malik Shahid Saleem, President of the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that Pakistan and Indonesia enjoyed cordial relations and there was a need to transform these good relations into thriving bilateral trade, investment and joint ventures between the two countries. He said Pakistan and Indonesia have signed a Preferential Trade Agreement and volume of bilateral trade between the two countries has improved to $2.3 billion. However, there was plenty of scope to improve the two-way trade in many areas, he added. 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 the actual potential. He said the RCCI would consider taking a trade delegation to Indonesia to explore new avenues of cooperation between the two countries. Senior Vice President Badar Haroon, Vice President Fayaz Qureshi, former president Raja Amer Iqbal were also present on the occasion. Published in Daily Times, November 10th 2018.