Karachi, April 11, 2018 (PPI-OT): Ghazanfar Bilour, President and Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, Sr. Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has expressed their gratitude and thanks to Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, Federal Commerce and Textile Minister and Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Revenue for recognizing the potential threat to the indigenous industries and taking timely action to defer the finalization of second phase of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA-II).
The non-signing of CPFTA-II has provided a sigh of relief to the trade and industry and has helped it to come out of shock and worries about the survival of existing industrial sector of Pakistan and its future development as industrialization is the key to economic self-sufficiency and sustainable development, they added.
The President and SVP of FPCCI elaborated that Pakistan is a developing country and its industrial base is very thin as compared to China, therefore, need of the hour is to protect the industrial growth of Pakistan which is already suffering from many faceted difficulties for its survival. “Since first FTA came into force in November 2006 Pakistan Trade Balance with China has worsened considerable although total bilateral trade between both the countries grew exponentially to $19bn in 2015/16 out of which imports from China was $16.5bn and export to China was only $2.5bn showing a trade deficit of $14bn which is slightly less than half of the Pakistan’s total trade deficit of $16.7bn.” they analyzed.
For more information, contact:
Secretary General
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI)
B-1, Federation House, Main Clifton Road,
Shahra-e-Firdousi,
Karachi-75600, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-35873691, 93-94
Fax: +92-21-35874332
Email: info@fpcci.com.pk
URL: www.fpcci.com.pk