LAHORE: Romanian Trade Commissioner Ioan Campean has said Romania, being a new member of the European Union, offers a huge potential for Pakistani businessmen in a number of sectors including manufacturing, automotive parts, electrical and electronic goods, wood processing, textiles, construction material, food processing, infrastructure and real estate.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Business Opportunities between Romania and Pakistan’ at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
The trade commissioner said Romania was the second largest market in central and eastern Europe with easy access to Commonwealth of Independent States, the Balkans, the Middle East and Northern Africa.
He said two-way trade between Romania and Pakistan had been improving with every passing day but still a lot could be done to take bilateral trade volume to desired levels.
“We believe that exchange of businessmen can help boost bilateral trade between the two friendly nations significantly,” he said.
He said Pakistan and Romania could also enhance their cooperation in the fields of agriculture, alternative energy sources and information technology.
In January 2007, he said, Romania became a member of the European Union and that was an added advantage to the businessmen who could initiate joint ventures with their counterparts from the east European nation.
He urged the business community to evolve an effective and sector-specific strategy in collaboration with Romanian businessmen for increasing the volume of two-way trade.
He said fast-changing global scenario demanded enhanced economic activity and exchange of trade delegations and joint exhibitions were a pre-requisite in that regard.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh said there was a great potential for trade between the two countries.
Pakistan is a producer of finest quality textile articles, articles of apparel, carpets, surgical and sports goods, fruits and vegetables, leather products, plastic and plastic products, furniture, manmade filaments, pharmaceutical products, etc which Romania is importing in bulk quantities from rest of the world. Similarly, Romania’s main exports consist of metals and metal products, machinery and equipment, minerals and fuels, chemicals and agricultural products.
“We need to identify more products through in-depth market research to increase the range of tradable products, as many potential areas/product lines remain unexplored due to lack of information about each other’s domestic markets. The chambers of commerce and diplomatic missions can play a vital role in this regard,” he said.
The Romanian engineering industry, he added, was a major contributor to its economic growth and in Pakistan there was a strong potential and need for investment and transfer of technology in the engineering sector.
The LCCI president said Pakistan also direly needed collaboration in post-harvest technology to take advantage of the huge agro-based potential presently being wasted.
Source: The News
Date:11/17/2007
