KARACHI: The Consul General of Indonesia Dr. June Kuncoro Hadiningrat Thursday said there was a need to establish cooperation between the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan and Indonesia. The Indonesian envoy, during a visit to Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) also assured to further enhance the bilateral trade and economic relations by encouraging people-to-people contacts and facilitating the business community of Karachi looking forward to improving trade and investment ties with Indonesia. The consul general was accompanied by Consul for Economic Affairs Djumara Supriyadi while KCCI president M Shariq Vohra, Senior Vice President M Saqib Goodluck, Vice President Shamsul Islam Khan and managing committee members attended the meeting. An Indonesia-Pakistan portal had been established to facilitate bilateral trade, the envoy said and invited the business community of Karachi to get registered at the portal to find business opportunities in Indonesia. In addition to traditional items lots of opportunities existed for enhancing exports through diversification of tradable goods, he added. Referring to the statistics of Indonesian Ministry of Trade, he informed that the trade volume between Indonesia and Pakistan had crossed US$2.5 billion and there were a lot of areas which could be explored for further enhancement of the existing trade volume. Indonesia attached importance to Karachi city and chamber as an effective platform for further promotion of bilateral trade and investment ties, the consul general said. M Shariq Vohra said Karachi was the hub of trade and economic activities that offered profitable investment opportunities and facilities for trade, investment and joint ventures. “Karachi city, which contributes more than 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer, is an attractive place for Indonesian businessmen, who can surely earn maximum profits by undertaking joint ventures here”, he said, adding the KCCI was keen to strengthen trade ties and exploring new bilateral trade prospects with Indonesia. He also appreciated Indonesian government for announcing 1,000 scholarships at 23 top universities of Indonesia offering graduation, masters and PhD courses for Pakistani students which would further improve friendly and cordial ties between the two nations. The KCCI president noted that the bilateral trade between the two countries was in favor of Indonesia as during 2020, Pakistan exported goods worth $194.94 million to Indonesia whereas the imports from Indonesia stood at $2.4 billion. Highlighting the potential for enhancing bilateral trade relations between Indonesia and Pakistan, he said the two countries could enhance their bilateral trade by exchanging commodities like maize, wheat, wheat flour, non-manufactured tobacco and ready-made garments while Halal Food industry also holds great potential for enhancing bilateral trade. “Indonesia along with the ASEAN countries is a huge market with great potential for Pakistani products and the businessmen should focus on these countries to promote trade and exports”, he added. At the end of the meeting, the Indonesian consul general and KCCI president expressed their commitment to make Indonesia-Pakistan Portal one of the right tools in the “new normal” era with joint effort for the national economic recovery of the two countries after the pandemic.