20000418

Germany for increasing

trade with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Germany is interested to increase business in Pakistan because of its unique geographical location at the junction of South, West and Central Asia.

This was stated by Director for Asian and Pacific Affairs in German's Foreign Ministry, Dr. Sommer at a conference "Business Partner Pakistan", in Berlin.

He said, Pakistan's natural resources, size and skilled labour makes it a natural candidate for international investment, provided it can assure an adequate business climate.

"We appreciate the good political and economic relationship, we have had with Pakistan during the past decades and will do our best to preserve and further developed our friendship", he added.

Pak-German bilateral trade, he said, has increased since the beginning of the 90s and resulted in a positive trade balance of about a quarter of a billion marks in favour of Pakistan, which exported goods worth over one billion marks to Germany in 1998.

German companies are interested in doing more business and intend to invest in Pakistan, but they feel that the overall political, economic and legal framework should become more attractive.

Based on our European experience, we believe that regional co-operation is the key peace, stability. The process of European integration has turned arch-enemies into friends within a few decades.

Germany, he said, has consistently advocated rapproachment between India and Pakistan and encouraged them to solve contentious issues through a constructive and result oriented dialogue.

Germany and EU stand ready to increase their support for Saarc because we are convinced, it can play a key role in the economic co-operation on the Sub-Continent.

European trading partners for South Asia, Germany imports less than one percent of its overall imports from that region, its exports to South Asian account for only 0.7 percent of its worldwide sales. Obviously there is much room for expansion.

To create a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), which will envisage in this century, seems to the quite ambitious, taking into account the various conflicts and structural imbalances in the Sub-Continent.ÑAPP