Annual Report

LCCI Chief for more trade between
Pakistan & Lebanon
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid and Vice President Zeshan Khalil are
presenting LCCI souviner to
H.E Mona El Tannir Ambassador of Lebanon.
LCCI Executive Committee Members Aurangzeb Aslam,
Dr. Shahid Raza, Ms. Nabila Intisar and others are also present.
Ambassador of Lebanon Mona El Tannir has called for well tailored sector specific
measures to cement mutual trade ties.
While talking to the LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Vice President Zeshan
Khalil and Executive Committee Members here at the Lahore Chamber of
Commerce & Industry, Ambassador said that businessmen of both countries should
focus each other’s market as Pakistan is an emerging economy while Lebanon
offers investors a wide range of investment opportunities in all sectors of the
economy, especially in tourism, agriculture, and energy. Furthermore, Lebanon
represents a point of entry to a large regional market.
She said that Embassy of Lebanon in Pakistan is facilitating the business
community for closer and strong trade and economic ties between Lebanon and
Pakistan. She urged the Pakistani businessmen to visit Lebanon to identify the
trade & investment opportunities.
The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that the balance of trade is in favour of
Pakistan but unfortunately there is decreasing trend in bilateral trade relations. The
trade figures revealed that in 2014, the volume of two-way trade was just dollar 34
million which fell down by 21% and by 23% in next two years. He said that exports
of Pakistan were to the tune of dollar 30 million in 2014 which contracted by 9%
and 20% in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The same trend was witnessed in imports
made from Lebanon to Pakistan.
“We need to make joint efforts to reverse this trend and match with the actual
potential of trade. Lebanon market holds a non-traditional status for Pakistan. The
best way is to let the private sector representatives interact with each other on
regular basis”, the LCCI President added and said
that efforts should be made to market Pakistan as a vibrant and growing economy.
He said that the Lebanese investors interested in finding new avenues and markets
should be guided to invest in Pakistan. We need to properly introduce comparative
advantages including geographic and economic advantages in a big way in
Lebanon.
Malik Tahir Javaid said Single
country exhibitions of Pakistan and
Lebanon should be organized in
either country respectively to
promote their products. Trade
delegations should be arranged on
reciprocal basis to facilitate
continuous liaison between the
business communities of the two
countries. He said that Pakistan is
already exporting cotton, manmade
staple fiber, textile made-ups,
articles of plastics, rice and cutlery
items etc., to Lebanon. He said that
many areas of trade and economic
cooperation can be identified like
construction, consumer goods and
consulting services including
engineering, doctors & para
medical staff, labour, teachers and
IT professionals etc.
The LCCI President said that major
bottleneck in promotion of trade
between the two countries is lack of
timely information about trade and
business opportunities in either
country. Our respective embassies
have to come up with innovative
solutions bridge the
communication gap.
“Lahore Chamber believes in trade
diplomacy and for that purpose, we
always like to maintain liaison with
heads of foreign missions in
Pakistan. We feel honoured that
among the diplomatic community,
LCCI is greatly respected. The
participation of Honourable
Ambassadors and High
Commissioners in LCCI’s
Ambassadors Dinner which is
regularly organized every year in
Islamabad, gives us more
confidence and encouragement to
get engaged with them time to time.
We look forward to interacting with
you more often. Both Pakistan and
Lebanon are members of OIC.
Despite the fact that Pakistan and
Lebanon enjoy good diplomatic
relations based on mutual trust, the
volume of trade between the two
countries continues to remain too
meager”, the LCCI President
concluded.
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