ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan and Turkey prepare to conclude the Goods Trade Agreement (TGA) next month, Ankara is keen to increase the number of flights from three existing cities and connect two more destinations in Pakistan, while delivering an electricity The company wants to invest. Lahore.
Under the agreement, bilateral trade will be increased from about $1 billion in 2021 to $5 billion over three years.
Senior government officials told dawn That the relevant ministries and agencies were engaged in finalizing the visit of the Turkish Trade Minister to Islamabad early next month with a large business delegation. An official said that the guest minister can sign the TGA. He said that it is being finalized at present.
During the visit of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to Turkey earlier this month, the two governments had agreed to increase bilateral trade from the current $1.1 billion to $5 billion over three years.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Commerce are currently in the process of forming a joint task force involving the concerned politicians, officials and eminent businessmen to achieve the $5 billion trade target.
Simultaneously, the Planning Commission, the Board of Investment (BoI) and the CPEC authorities are also working together to examine how Turkey can benefit from CPEC, for which the Ministry of External Affairs is also engaged with China in relevant forums. The matter has been called for discussion.
Informed sources said Zorlu Energy Group, which currently operates a nearly 55mw renewable power project in Pakistan, had shared with Prime Minister Sharif during his recent visit that it has a power distribution company that it wants to bring to Lahore. and is interested in setting up electric vehicles. (EV) charging facilities in Pakistan.
Sources further said that Turkish Airlines had officially requested Islamabad to allow it to increase the frequency of flights from three existing stations – Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad – and add two more stations – Sialkot and Faisalabad – to its flight portfolio. Add to.
Secondly, it sought permission to ‘retain profits earned in Pakistan in foreign currency accounts and repatriate it to Turkey’.
The Department of Aviation, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Ministry of Finance and BoI were looking into these matters.
Officials said the two sides are working together on convening the 7th High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) led by the two prime ministers in September this year in Islamabad to sign seven agreements and finalize other agreements and MoUs. Were.
Before this, both sides will have to review the status of implementation of existing agreements as well as the Strategic Economic Framework (SEF) and identify new areas of cooperation in the SEF.
Some of the upcoming agreements are related to highway engineering between Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and Pakistan’s Ministry of Communications, technical cooperation between central banks, Treasury and Finance authorities in debt management and knowledge sharing, cooperation in urbanization, climate change and investment in the environment and housing sectors.
Pakistani authorities are seeking Turkish expertise to improve Pakistan’s entire business ecosystem using Turkey’s experience with the European Union.
Meanwhile, the railways and commerce ministries have been asked to identify the sustainability and bottlenecks of the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (TI) train project.
The upcoming business delegation will also include top Turkish companies, led by a prominent businessman-cum-politician Burhan Kayatürk – a graduate of the Lahore Technological University.
As an advance consideration, a leading firm Siyahkalem has proposed investment in the solar, wind and hydropower sector, apart from low-cost housing, through the Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority.
Albayrak, engaged in Pakistan’s waste management and transportation sectors in some of the major cities of Punjab, is also interested in expanding to other provinces, while Arcelik is looking to develop the technology sector. In addition, another firm, Hayat Kimya, is seeking a solution to its industrial problems in Faisalabad, where it had set up a factory of paper goods and diapers a few years ago, but during the previous setup was good with the provincial government. Not done.
Published in Dawn, June 27, 2022