MOU signed with Italy for the promotion of trade & investment

During a ceremony held recently, the Embassy of Italy in Pakistan entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with 'All Pakistan Business Forum' (APBF), aimed at the establishment and promotion of trade and Investment opportunities through mutual collaboration in the areas of common interests. The Italian Ambassador to Pakistan - His Excellency Mr. Stefano Pontecorvo and the APBF President -Mr. Ibrahim Qureshi signed the MOU, which brought major developments.

According to this MOU, APBF and Italian Embassy have reached an understanding to cooperate in key areas for collaboration, like; promotion of mutual Trade links, facilitation of closer understanding between the Business Community of Italy and Pakistan, promote B2B meetings for sector specific matchmaking, support each other in the organization of business delegation visits, coordination and exchange of information on economic matters of mutual interests, and other understandings of mutual benefit between the two countries as and when deemed appropriate. The signing ceremony was attended by high-profiled members of the business community, media personnel, political figures, government officials and Academia as well.

On this event, President APBF - Mr. Ibrahim Qureshi expressed his gratitude to the Italian Ambassador and acknowledged the valuable collaboration of Italy with Pakistan. During the ceremony both the parties to MOU are certain to bring it to 45 billion within the time span of merely one year, instead of current trade balance of 1.5 billion dollars. Mr. Ibrahim Qureshi in his address to the ceremony emphasized that products must segmentize products, keep focused towards the business and excel in the mutually beneficial sectors of collaboration. Within the short time period of 30 days, Italian Embassy and APBF have successfully reached the consensus for signing an MOU for enhancing the trade and investment, by identifying new areas/ sectors of mutual interest and to facilitate each other in bringing the ties between the two countries to the whole new level.

In the urge to bring the mutual trade to US $ 4-5 billion within a year, parties to the MOU agreed on 6 major areas of collaboration, as described by Mr. Qureshi; The areas worked out for focused collaborations are Agricultural Machinery and Equipments, Leather goods, Textiles, Marble (particularly 4 precious types among more than 105 types), furniture, Renewable energy and automotive. Other potentials sectors are also not neglected, but the spectrum of collaboration will be expanded gradually with serious approach. President APBF recognized the significant role of women in building Pakistan economy a pride in the region. And for that Women Entrepreneurship has been agreed by the both sides (Italian Embassy & APBF) to facilitate and encourage. Mr. Qureshi also announced to introduce a new chapter of APBF to bridge the gap between the Pakistani business community with established business in abroad and the business community here in Pakistan.