FAISALABAD   -  Korean Ambassador Park Ki­jun said on Thursday that se­rious efforts would be made to enhance direct trade between Faisalabad and Korea.

Addressing the business community at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & In­dustry (FCCI), he said Fais­alabad was the textile hub of Pakistan. He said bilateral co­operation in the sector would be further improved in the coming years. He particularly identified agriculture, textile, energy and IT and said that these sectors had potential to increase cooperation for ben­efit of the two countries.

He said that Korean busi­nesspeople fully understand the potential and hopefully they would exploit it by en­hancing investment and tech­nical cooperation. He was op­timistic that Pakistan would soon emerge as a major player in South-West Asia because of its economic growth and social development. He said that the FCCI should play a key role in enhancing bilateral trade be­tween Faisalabad and Korea, while the Korean embassy would also complement these efforts. He said that relations between the Korean embassy and the FCCI would be further strengthened to give a quan­tum jump to bilateral trade.

About the short stay period on multiple visas, he promised resolving the issue in consul­tation with the FCCI president. He also assured to share Ko­rean experience of SMEs with Faisalabad so that this sector could make tremendous prog­ress in this field. He said that empowerment of women was a general global issue; howev­er, “we would also look into it to involve Pakistani women in the national mainstream”.

He said Pakistani mangoes were being exported to Korea and Pakistani exporters would get more orders for export of the specific Pakistani delicacy. About import of Korean dyes and chemicals, he said “our quality products are compara­tively costly as compared to the Chinese products”. How­ever, he hoped that Korean companies would again take interest in the Pakistani mar­ket and regain it with innova­tive marketing steps.

Earlier, Dr Khurram Tariq President FCCI welcomed the Korean ambassador and his team. He also introduced Fais­alabad and FCCI and quoted his first meeting with his Ex­cellency in which particular stress was laid on exchange of cultural delegations. He said that 25 major Korean compa­nies were working in Pakistan, while a hydroelectric power project was also undertaken in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with an estimated cost of $1b. He said that a state-of-the-art Technical Textile Centre had also been established in NTU with Korean assistance. He said the biggest Korean invest­ment in Faisalabad is in the Nishat Hyundai assembling plant in FIEDMC. Maqsood Akhtar Butt, Arif Ihsan Malik, Ms. Najma Afzal and others exchanged views with the am­bassador on diverse issues.

Later Executive Member Muhammad Azhar Chaudhry offered vote of thanks while President Dr Khurram Tariq along with Vice President Hajji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli pre­sented FCCI shield to Park Kijun, ambassador of South Korea. The ambassador also presented gifts to Dr Khurram Tariq and Haji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli. He also recorded his impressions in the FCCI visitor’s book.