SL-PAK FTA underutilized: Newly appointed SL-PAK Biz Council President
The 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Sri Lanka-pakistan Business Council under the aegis of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) was held recently electing Lanka Commodity Holdings Chief Executive Officer Azmy Mohideen as President.
The chief guest was Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Janzab Khan.
Mohideen in his speech said, “During his tenure as President, Rohitha, as stated by him, was instrumental in setting up the Stakeholders Committee comprising of a cross section of business personals, officials of government institutions like the Sri Lanka Customs, EDB, BOI, State Pharmaceutical Corporation, to sit at one table to discuss business-related issues and fine-tuning the way forward.
It was definitely not an easy task to bring all these people together at one table. Rohitha, we really appreciate your efforts. Also, it was during his tenure as President that the Business Council signed two Mous with chambers in Pakistan; first time the Business Council signed two Mous with chambers in Pakistan. This again was a big task but Rohitha had the courage, obviously we have a lot of disciplines to obey but Rohitha took the initiative of signing these to MOUS with the two trade delegations, which definitely is very advantageous to our business council.
I also congratulate Nagendra on being appointed as the First Honorary Member of the council. He has been an inspiration to all of us here. I certainly look forward to his valuable advice and support. Thank you sir.
The Pakistan High Commission has always been very supportive and cooperative to us and I certainly look forward to working with them very closely in performing our role as facilitators of trade between the two countries as we pursue towards achieving the magical one billion dollar bilateral trade target.
We are near the 50 percent mark now from the previous year’s 350 million. But unfortunately, the Sri Lankan exports are only about US $ 80-90 million of that. That is indeed a sad story, of course we are talking of a big brother with 250 220 million people but with diplomats like Khan there, I’m sure we can achieve our target. Nothing is unachievable; we can do it with the support of the high commission and our Pakistani counterparts to move forward.
As we all are aware, both these countries have been having such a long-standing relationship and always been there for each other during times of need, whether at war, natural disasters, fertilizer, sports, we have always been there for each other.
All what is needed is to create awareness of yet untapped areas at both ends, to increase bilateral trade between the two countries, for the mutual benefit and as the potential is enormous between the two countries.
We do have an FTA in place, which was Sri Lanka’s second FTA and Pakistan’s first FTA. But unfortunately, the desired results never came in due to red tapes, like nontariff barriers and so on. But from what we understand, both the Commerce Ministries are in discussion at this moment and we are very sure that they will iron out the issues, which will help both countries to trade more freely for the benefit of the countries.
It is up to the business community to make use of these FTAS for the benefit of their own businesses. We are there as facilitators. If you have any issues with visas, if you want any assistance, advice, this committee is there to extend its support and I am sure the Pakistan Embassy will also give support. We have to take advantage of this situation.
We are culturally so connected; I think on principle we have good relations with both the countries but trade numbers are at pathetic levels. When you compare with other nations, it is not at desirable levels. We will have to work together to capitalize on the benefits and achieve greater numbers.
I thank our Secretary, the hard-working Cherryl and her team at the chamber for their efficient organisation and look forward to their continuous support.
Khan in his speech encouraged the business community to look at the bigger picture of opportunities available.
Khan said, “It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here and an honour. Off the bat I would like to congratulate the newly elected committee and I hope and I pray for success for them and may they reach new horizons, of which there are plenty of opportunities.
It is a great pleasure to note that business people from both Sri Lanka and Pakistan have taken the lead for furthering the economic relations between the two countries. We, at the Pakistan High Commission, fully endorse and support all efforts in reference to the growth in business strides between our two friendly and I would like to say brotherly countries. We assure of our complete assistance for your present and future endeavours.
The security and economic environment in Pakistan has improved, not quite a lot, but significantly. We are at the tail end of wiping out the cancer, with which we were infested, which like your great country was after 30 years of war, eventually you got rid of it. We are in the last phase of the last phase. I expect in the very near future we will be overcoming this cancer.
I would suggest you to explore on your own about Pakistan’s GDP, inflation, investment policies and upcoming mega projects. This is with particular reference to the China-pakistan Economic Corridor. I am sure you would agree with our assertion that this is a good time to do business with Pakistan, not only laterally but vertically as well. And like they say, you may like to hedge your bets, which is the right opportune time now.
Let us be honest in stating the fact that our trade relations are not where they should be. Despite the FTA, the level of bilateral trade hovers around US $ 300 to 400 billion annually, which is about 40 percent, if I’m not wrong, to the end which are aiming at.
On the administrative side, business visas and cost of travel have emerged as an obstacle in the enhancement of the trade. As the President just highlighted, the fact that the business visa issue has greatly reduced, however the flight, travelling fare is relatively high. As you would see at the end of my talk, there would be some suggestions out of the box and if appropriately addressed and engaged, I assure you this council in itself would become, most probably, the most economically viable group of people in Sri Lanka.
The Pakistan-sri Lanka FTA has to be updated, there is no doubt, both its scope and coverage. There is need to have more tariff lines, doing away with tariff trade questions and addition of services, investment, dispute mechanism is jeopardizing. Both the countries are talking of these issues but the pace has to be enhanced.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would once again like to take this opportunity to congratulate the new committee, my prayers and wishes for them for a bright future, for plenty of economic transactions and businesses between these two great countries and nations. I wish you all well. Thank you very much for your patient hearing.”
Mohideen thanked the chief guest for his insightful words with the exiting development of Pakistan and said he looks forward to a closer involvement with the council.