LAHORE: Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan Ullanbek Totuiaev has emphasized the deep historical, religious, and cultural ties between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, highlighting the significant potential for bilateral cooperation across various sectors. He underscored the importance of prioritizing trade, economic relations, and investment, noting the mutual benefits for both nations.
He was speaking to the business community here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Saturday. LCCI President Kashif Anwar presented the address of welcome while Senior Vice President Zafar Mahmood Chaudhry, former SVPs Kashif Younas Meher, Amjad Ali Jawa, EC members Raja Hassan Akhter, Jabbar Khalid, President Kyrgyz Trade House Dr. Shahid Hassan and former EC member Husnain Raza Mirza were also present.
The Ambassador said that former Lahore Chamber’s SVP Kashif Younis Meher has been appointed as the honorary Consul General of Kyrgyzstan and the establishment of the Kyrgyz Trade House in Lahore was hailed as a positive s
tep to enhance bilateral relations.
Ambassador Totuiaev emphasized Kyrgyzstan’s conducive investment climate, with liberal laws attracting foreign investment and facilitating large-scale projects. He stressed the ongoing efforts to elevate economic cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan.
He said that joint business forums have been instrumental in fostering collaboration, with plans for more forums in the upcoming year to facilitate the participation of major companies. The Ambassador highlighted Kyrgyzstan’s interest in various sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and textiles from Pakistan, while acknowledging challenges such as price competitiveness with other markets. He said that the embassy of Kyrgyzstan offered to provide comprehensive information on sectors like energy, agriculture, and food production to the Lahore Chamber to further bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
The Ambassador addressed logistical challenges, including border closures between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an
d highlighted the significance of the quadrilateral trade transit agreement among Pakistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. He commended initiatives such as the NLC-operated route through Karakoram, reducing transit time significantly.
Moreover, he mentioned the ongoing establishment of railway connections between China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, welcoming Pakistan’s involvement through Afghanistan in this project. Ambassador Totuiaev also celebrated the significant presence of 12,000 Pakistani students in Kyrgyzstan, contributing positively to cultural exchanges between the two nations.
In his welcome address, LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are members of important international organizations like Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) etc. Both countries have been enjoying sound diplomatic relations since 1992. “We share religious and cultural ties with strong bonding of brotherhood.
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He said that according to the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan’s total exports to Kyrgyzstan were around US $ 2.6 million in 2021-22 which increased to US $ 9.9 million in 2022-23. On the other hand, Pakistan’s imports from Kyrgyzstan are quite negligible. Pakistan’s exports to Kyrgyzstan are dominated by pharmaceutical products. The main reason of such a low volume of trade is lack of knowledge about each other’s market. “We are keen to get better share in total imports of Kyrgyzstan that were around US $ 9.6 billion in 2022.”
Kashif Anwar said that Pakistani products including value-added textiles, surgical instruments, sports goods, leather products, automotive parts, processed food and engineering goods have great scope in Kyrgyzstan. There is also a great potential of Joint Ventures (JVs) in the sectors of tourism, logistics, information technology and e-commerce. He mentioned that over 15,000 Pakistani students are pursuing higher education in the Kyrgyz Republic. Both countries can exploit signific
ant potential for cooperation in education sector as well.
‘Lahore Chamber has been talking about exploiting the untapped potential of trade in Central Asian Republics,’ he said, adding that Kyrgyzstan and China share a long border. He said that Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan should make good use of CPEC for attaining better connectivity to deeply explore each other’s markets. “We expect a supporting role from the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan to make things move in the right direction.”
Kashif Anwar informed the house that the 4th Session of Kyrgyz-Pakistan Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation was held on 10th November 2023 in Bishkek. During the session, both sides had stressed upon improving connectivity through the advancement of rail, road, and air links, alongside promoting increased people-to-people engagement. He said that both sides also discussed the need for early completion of CASA-1000 project for transmission of surplus renewable energy from Central Asia to Sou
th Asia. We are hopeful about swift implementation of these important initiatives.
He said that there is a need for a robust plan of action to address trade barriers and in this connection, the Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment can play an important role. Both sides should finalize the Transit Trade Agreement as the year-round accessibility of the Karakoram Highway presents a key opportunity for facilitating transit trade and strengthening bilateral economic ties.
He said that the commercial sections of our respective embassies have to play a positive role in this connection. Similarly, in order to increase people to people contacts and bilateral trade, the embassies and chambers should collaborate with each other on regular basis and provide every possible support.
The LCCI President especially mentioned about the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) established by the Government of Pakistan to primarily focus on expediting new investments in five areas including defence, agriculture,
minerals, information technology/telecommunication and energy. He hoped that the envoy would apprise the investors from Kyrgyzstan about these investment opportunities in Pakistan under SIFC.
He requested to the Ambassador to encourage investors to invest in Pakistan through Joint Ventures. In addition to that the government of Punjab is making an all-out effort to improve doing business in the province by facilitating international and national investors through one window operations in the Business Facilitation Centre.
The LCCI President said that increasing the frequency of direct flights, organizing trade delegations and holding single country exhibitions on reciprocal basis would prove to be effective in opening new avenues that are much needed for enhancing the mutual trade relations.