Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, Acting President FPCCI, has apprised the entire business, industry and trade community of Pakistan that Cemal Sangu, Consul General of Turkiye in Karachi, had invited a multi-sectoral business delegation from the apex platform of FPCCI to explore the avenues for trade and economic cooperation.

“The two countries have an evident bilateral trade potential of $5 billion, but at present, we are only at $1 billion per year,” he said while addressing industrialists and exporters along with Mr Cemal Sangu at Federation House.

Magoon reiterated that both sides had agreed that we should take tangible steps to realize the trade potential whereas, Pakistan stands to gain tremendous foreign earnings through exports of value-added textiles, leather goods, processed foods, IT and IT-enabled services, sports goods and surgical equipment.

Asif Sakhi, VP FPCCI, reiterated that Turkiye had world-class expertise in manufacturing and engineering products, specifically electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy (RE), avionics and drones, robotics and machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), space sciences and agriculture and food technologies. Pakistan should go for industrial collaborations with Turkiye through offering its land coupled with a huge pool of young but cheap labor, he added.

Mian Zahid Hussain, Chairman of FPCCI’s Policy Advisory Board (FPCCI-PAB), maintained that Pak-Turkiye Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was a very positive development as Pakistan achieved a bilateral trade surplus of over $100 million in 2023, underscoring the strengthening economic partnership and mutual benefits fostered by this agreement.

Salman Tufail, Chairman of FPCCI’s Pakistan-Turkiye Joint Business Council (PTJBC), highlighted that agricultural, technology and entertainment industries should be prioritized as Turkiye was very advanced in agritech at par with European standards in hi-tech products and had a great entertainment industry ecosystem. We should invite investments and JVs from Turkiye in various segments of entertainment industry, i.e. film and television studios, cinemas and theatres, sports complexes and theme and recreational parks, he added.

Cemal Sangu, Consul General of Turkiye in Karachi, called for action in economic, commercial and trade domain as Pakistan and Turkiye had enormous potential for each other as they had populations of 250 million and 85 million, respectively.

Sangu called for agricultural land acquisition for cultivation from Turkish investors as they are doing in Africa, importing hi-tech engineering equipment and machinery from Turkiye on cheaper rates but at par with European standards as most of Turkish exports are to Europe, synchronizing rail system of Pakistan with Turkiye and Iran to enable land-based transportation of goods, and forging B2B and chamber-to-chamber alliances between the two countries on a sectoral basis to enhance trade in multiple sectors.