ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan and Turkiye prepare to conclude the Trade in Goods Agreement( TGA) coming month, Ankara is keen on adding the number of breakouts from the three being metropolises and adding two further destinations in Pakistan while a power distribution company wants to invest in Lahore.
Under the agreement, bilateral trade will be increased to $5 billion in three times from about $1bn in 2021.
Elderly government officers told Dawn that applicable ministries and agencies were engaged in finalising a visit of the Turkish trade minister to Islamabad beforehand coming month along with a large business delegation. The guest minister may subscribe the TGA, an functionary said, adding that it was being finalised at the moment.
The two governments had agreed during the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Turkiye beforehand this month to enhance bilateral trade to$ 5bn in three times from the present $1.1 bn.
The Prime Minister Office(PMO) and the commerce ministry are presently in the process of creating a common task force comprising applicable politicians, officers and prestigious businessmen to achieve the$ 5bn trade target.
contemporaneously, the Planning Commission, Board of Investment( BOI) and CPEC Authority are also working nearly to examine how Turkiye can profit from CPEC for which the foreign ministry has also been asked to bandy the matter with China at the applicable forums.
Informed sources said Zorlu Energy Group, which presently operates about 55mw renewable energy design in Pakistan, had participated with Prime Minister Sharif during his recent visit that it had a power distribution company which it wanted to bring to Lahore and was interested in setting up electric vehicle( EV) charging installations in Pakistan.
The sources further said Turkish Airlines had officially requested Islamabad to allow it to increase the frequence of breakouts from three being stations – Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad – and also add two further stations – Sialkot and Faisalabad – to its flight portfolio.
Secondly, it had sought authorization to ‘ maintain gains earned in Pakistan in foreign exchange accounts and repudiate it to Turkiye ’.
The Aviation Division, State Bank of Pakistan( SBP), Ministry of Finance and BOI were looking into these matters.
officers said the two sides were working nearly on convening the 7th High Level Strategic Cooperation Council( HLSCC) – led by the two high ministers – in September this time in Islamabad to subscribe about seven agreements and finalise other pacts and memorandums of understanding.
Before that, the two sides have to review the perpetration status of the being agreements as well as the strategic profitable frame( SEF) and relating new areas of cooperation in the SEF.
Some of the forthcoming agreements pertain to trace engineering between the Turkish ministry of transport and structure and Pakistan’s ministry of communication, specialized cooperation between the central banks, storeroom and finance authorities in debt operation and knowledge sharing, cooperation in urbanisation, climate change and terrain and casing sector investment.
Pakistani authorities are seeking Turkish moxie on how to ameliorate Pakistan’s entire business ecosystem by utilising Turkish experience with the European Union.
Meanwhile, the ministries of railroads and commerce have been asked to look into the sustainability of Islamabad- Tehran- Istanbul( TI) train design and identification of impediments.
The forthcoming business delegation would also include top Turkish companies, led by a leading businessman- cum- politician Burhan Kayaturk – a graduate of Lahore University of Technology.
As advance consideration, a leading establishment Siyahkalem has proposed investments in solar, wind and hydropower sector besides low cost casing through the Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority.
Albayrak which has been engaged in Pakistan waste operation and transport sectors in some of the major metropolises in Punjab is also interested in expanding to other businesses while Arcelik is looking into development of the technology sector. Also, another establishment, Hayat Kimya, is seeking resolution of its artificial problems in Faisalabad where it had set up a plant of paper goods and diapers a many times agone
but didn’t go well with the parochial government during the former setup.
