ISLAMABAD - Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan Mustafa Babur Hizlan has said that the issue of Karkey Power Plant would have a negative impact on Turkish investors in Pakistan.
Reiterating concern of the Turkish company Karkey, Turkish Ambassador expressed his special concern for resolving this matter and said that the ship had been mounted with state-of-the-art devices, which are likely to be damaged with the passage of time, as it was the largest investment of Turkey in Pakistan.
While addressing the business community of the federal capital during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Turkish Ambassador said that there were a lot of similarities that could be drawn in many areas between Pakistan and Turkey for improving the trade ties between the two countries. He said that it is high time to translate the gains of the excellent brotherly relations between the two countries for qualitative upgradation in our bilateral economic and commercial ties.
He underscored the importance of strengthening rail and air connectivity to further boost cooperation between the two countries and said that there is dire need for greater number of flights of the Turkish Airlines to destinations in Pakistan as well as PIA should also increase its flights to Turkey.
In his welcome address, Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI, said that said that brotherly and friendly ties between Pakistan and Turkey should have been transformed into beneficial economic relations. He said during floods and earthquakes, the Turkish government and people have always stood with their Pakistani brothers.
ICCI President termed the annual bilateral trade between Turkey and Pakistan was very low which was around $1.8 billion in 2011 and emphasized to increase bilateral trade up to $3 billion for economic prosperity of the two countries. He said that both the countries are very important countries for their respective regions because Turkey is a gateway to Europe while Pakistan is a gateway to Central Asia and South Asia.
Bakhtawari also stressed the need for fast tracking the conclusion of Pakistan-Turkey Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and creating facilitative mechanisms and opportunities for investors and private sectors of the two countries to bolster the bilateral trade to new heights and to achieve the mutually-agreed trade target.
ICCI President emphasized the need for further cooperation by Turkish Air Line to make possible for Pakistan to have direct air link with various countries like Azerbaijan, thus, by making a flight to Islamabad from Istanbul via Baku (Azerbaijan) would create a direct link between Azerbaijan and Pakistan as well.
He said that the dream of railway track between Pakistan and Turkey via Iran should also be materialized for crating a strong linkage between the people of both the countries. He said that technical problems for fast train linkage from Islamabad to Ankara should be handled in an efficient way.