Pakistan Malaysia JMC to TAP full Economic Potential
 

Islamabad, May 21, 2010

Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan Federal Minister for Privatisation has desired early convening of the Fourth session of Pakistan-Malaysia Joint Ministerial Commission to discuss ways to means to improve trade and investment between Malaysia and Pakistan and to tap full economic and trade potential that exists between the two countries, says a message received from Kuala Lumpur here today. He said this in his meeting with Malaysian Minister for International Trade and Industry Dato Mustapha Mohammad held in Kuala Lumpur.

The Minister for Privatisation also expressed satisfaction on the soon-to-be launched Malaysian chapter of the Pakistan-Malaysia Joint Business Council (JBC), which is being announced early next month. The Council’s Pakistan chapter has already been formed and intimated to the Malaysian side, will provide a formal platform to the private sectors of both the countries to interact with each other on regular basis for business networking, identifying areas of common interest and interact to explore investment opportunities to the mutual advantage of the two countries.

During his detailed meeting with MITI Minister, Senator Waqar suggested for convening of a conference of Chief Executives Officers of leading companies of the two countries to jointly explore and identify areas of cooperation, including possible joint ventures in areas such as halal food industry, milk and milk-based products, power and energy sector, alternate energy generation. In the later category, he specifically mentioned of vast reserves of coal in Sindh, which could be gasified to produce energy. Other areas of cooperation include Wind and Hydropower, exploration and development of coal, gas and petroleum reserves and Islamic Banking.

The Senator also proposed the formation of Pakistan-Malaysia Joint Investment Company (JIC) with matching funds. Pakistan, he told the MITI Minister, had witnessed immense benefits from such an experience with countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Libya, China and UAE. The Malaysian Minister expressed his keen interest and desired to have more details in this regard. Regarding Privatisation, the Malaysian Minister said that Malaysia had 25-year long experience in this filed and expressed his country’s readiness to share their experiences and expertise with Pakistan. Both the sides also agreed that there existed vast potential to augment trade and investment levels. Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan also met with the members of Pro-tem Committee of Malaysian Chapter of Joint Business Council (JBC) and urged them to play a meaningful role to promote business, trade and investment between the two countries commensurate with the great political will and cooperation between the two countries.

The visiting Minister also interacted with local and International print and electronic media and briefed them about the Government’s initiatives and endeavors to improve the micro and macro-economic indicators which were bearing fruits and that Pakistan expected to register 4% GDP growth for this year which could grow to 6% to 7% in the coming years. The political stability obtained in the country at present and a regime of sustained policies had created a business and investment friendly environment in Pakistan, which was reflected in the fact that more than 700 foreign companies were successfully operating in Pakistan.