ICCI chief urges British investors to take advantage of CPEC projects

Islamabad: President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari has urged the British investors to take advantage of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects for their investments.

In a meeting with Chairman Pakistan Britain Business Council (PBBC) Julian Hamilton Barns here, the ICCI chief mentioned that Pakistan and Britain were doing trade in limited items and urged to diversify trade to achieve better results.

He urged the investors of Britain to explore joint ventures and investment in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy including CPEC and assured that ICCI would help in connecting them with right partners in Pakistan.

He hoped that close cooperation between ICCI and PBBC would help in further improving trade and economic ties between Pakistan and UK.

Speaking at the occasion, Julian Hamilton Barns, Chairman PBBC and Honorary Consul General of Pakistan in UK said that the bilateral trade of around 3 billion pounds between UK and Pakistan is not in commensurate with their actual potential and stressed that the business community of both countries should work together to take the bilateral trade to at least 10 billion pounds as they have potential for it.

He maintained that that Pakistan’s blue economy has tremendous potential to generate business of billions of dollars and emphasized that the Pakistani business community should reach out to international counterparts to exploit the untapped potential of its blue economy.

He said that PBBC is working to promote networking and connectivity between private sectors of Britain and Pakistan to further improve business and investment relations.

Rashid Iqbal, CEO, PBBC stressed for more interaction and events between ICCI and PBBC to increase bilateral trade ties. He said that the business community of both countries should participate in trade fairs and exhibitions in each other country to introduce their products that would help in boosting trade between the two countries.

Rizwana Asif, President, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry underlined the need of promoting close cooperation between the women entrepreneurs of Pakistan and UK for their better economic empowerment.

Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI and Rashid Iqbal, CEO PBBC also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the visit of a PBBC delegation to the ICCI.