ISLAMABAD - A Turkish delegation led by its Member National Assembly and Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Prof Dr Muhammad Cetin visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and discussed ways and means to explore and create joint venture opportunities between the two countries.
Prof Dr Muhammad Cetin upheld the friendship between Turkey and Pakistan and vowed to help Pakistan in its hard times, adding that there is no example of the deep love held between Pakistani people and the Turkish people. He also emphasised to increase bilateral trade up to $2 billion for economic prosperity of the two countries.
He urged upon the Muslim nations to further promote and strengthen economic ties and cooperation for exploiting the existing potential and ensuring maximum possible trade exchange. He said that Pakistan and Turkey are very important countries for the entire Muslim Umah, having very strong potential to lead their respective regions.
Dr Cetin said that education is the best investment; therefore Pakistan should invest more in education sector to build human capital for surviving in the knowledge economy. To achieve growth through a well-educated and skilful workforce, Government should come up with policy reforms in the education sector, he maintained.
In his welcome address, Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI said that Pakistan and Turkey have historic brotherly relations, thus both the countries should further strengthen the mutual trade relations by promoting business relations.
ICCI President expressed that it is the need of the hour to explore possibility of joint ventures between Turkey and Pakistan. He said that we can strengthen our economy by adopting development and progress of Turkey as a model in numerous sectors especially energy as energy is an important issue for Pakistan’s economic growth.
Bakhtawari said that many Turkish companies made investment in Pakistan in various sectors like energy and chemical and we are looking for others Turkish companies to invest in others fields as score of incentives are being provided by the government to the investors.
ICCI President also stressed 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.
Chairman Pak-Turk education Foundation, Unal Tosur said that people of Turkey consider Pakistan as their second home, adding that promotion of education in Pakistan is our mission and the foundation is actively working for this purpose.