Daily Times

Economic and Commercial Attaché of Spain Embassy Aitor Santiago Garin on Monday called upon the businessmen of both countries to step up efforts for developing strong connectivity for promoting volume up to their real potential.

He said that Spain and Pakistan have great potential to improve bilateral trade in many areas, which still remain untapped. While interacting with the business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said that the current bilateral trade volume between Spain and Pakistan was quite low with the bulk of Pakistan’s exports to Spain confined to textiles products.

However, trade could be increased significantly by developing business linkages between the private sectors of both countries.

He said that lack of awareness about Pakistani products in Spain was a major trade barrier, which should be addressed to enhance trade ties.

He said Pakistani fruits including mangoes have great potential for exports and Pakistani fruits exporters should focus on complying with the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) standards to capture EU market. He said that Pakistan should develop easy trade dispute resolution mechanisms to attract more foreign investors.

He said Spain gives great importance to Pakistan and there was an equal opportunity for Pakistan to penetrate European trade markets.

He assured that the Spanish embassy would cooperate with ICCI in further increasing trade and economic relations between Spain and Pakistan.

Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President ICCI said that Pakistan could export many products at cost effective prices to Spain including mangoes, agro products, pharmaceuticals, sports goods, leather products, surgical instruments, IT products and Spanish importers should focus on Pakistan for imports.

He said that Spanish cooperation in the tourism sector could help Pakistan to promote its tourism industry. He said that Pakistan was an emerging market for business and investment, therefore, he urged the Spanish companies to consider technology transfer to Pakistan and explore JVs in our country to produce value added products.

He said that Pakistan could also provide outsourcing services to Spanish companies in IT and services sectors.

He assured that ICCI would connect the Spanish companies with right counterparts in Pakistan for JVs and partnerships.