‘Australia ready to cooperate with Pakistan in IT sector’
High Commissioner of Australia, Margaret Adamson said on Friday that Australia was ready to cooperate with Pakistan in multiple sectors to uplift its economic profile.
While addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), she said, her country could cooperate in agriculture, energy, exploration of natural resources, information technology, health, education and value chain.
Pakistan, he observed, was in the driving seat globally in Information Technology (IT) sector with young and talented pool of IT professional and this area has great potential for mutual cooperation between the two countries. She said, water conservation and optimum utilization of water was another area of great interest for Pakistan and Australia as both could face water shortage issue.
She said their strong cooperation in this area could help them to cope with this challenge more effectively. The Ambassador said Pakistan was a strong market of 200 million people with abundant natural resources while Australia possessed advanced technology and expertise in many fields, so both countries have good potential to complement each other in many areas.
This region had
great opportunities for business and investment and opined that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was vital to strengthen the regional connectivity and promote regional integration. Ms. Margaret Adamson said Australia could supply LNG to Pakistan to overcome its energy issues.
She was of the view that Pakistan's profile as an investment destination was needed to be further uplifted to attract more Australian investment.
However, she assured that Australia would continue to work with Pakistan in agriculture, energy, health, education and other sectors to strengthen its economy. In his welcome address, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Atif Ikram Sheikh said Pakistan and Australia enjoyed good political relations which should be transformed into growing trade and economic relations.
He said bilateral trade of US$ 485 million during 201415 between Pakistan and Australia was far less than their real potential and stressed that both countries should focus on exchange of trade delegations on regular basis to identify new avenues of mutual cooperation.
He said Australia should share its advanced agro-technology, expertise and quality seeds with Pakistan to improve productivity and quality of its agro products.