KARACHI:Trade delegation from Houston likely to visit Karachi in Sept. 2022 which will hold meetings with government officials, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) office bearers and other trade bodies in the city.
“Keeping in view the high profiles of delegates and the nature of their businesses, I am sure this visit of trade delegation led by Houston Mayor will certainly prove beneficial for your businesses,” said President, Houston-Karachi Sister City Association (HKSCA), Muhammad Saeed Sheikh during a meeting with KCCI office bearers.
According to the press release issued by KCCI here Tuesday, President KCCI Muhammad Idrees Memon, Senior Vice President KCCI Abdul Rehman Naqi, Vice President Qazi Zahid Hussain, Chairman Diplomatic Missions and Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Zia-ul-Arfeen, Chairman Fairs, Exhibitions and Trade Delegation Azeem Ahmed Alvi, former president KCCI Majyd Aziz and KCCI Managing Committee Members were present in the meeting.
Muhammad Saeed Sheikh said that HKSCA was also looking forward to facilitate signing of Memorandum of Understanding or Memorandum of Cooperation between the Houston Port and Karachi Port Trust so that the business communities of the two cities could be provided numerous facilities including warehouses at the ports.
He stressed to make collective efforts to further strengthen the existing trade and investment ties between the business communities of Houston and Karachi by exploring new avenues of trade and investment cooperation, and by encouraging business-to-business and people-to-people interactions along with organizing trade promotional activities including trade delegations’ visits and exhibitions in both the cities.
President HKSCA said the purpose of establishing HKSCA in 2009 was to improve connectivity by organizing meetings with numerous departments and trade bodies in Houston during the visit of delegations from Karachi along with offering humanitarian services and promoting cultural exchanges between the two cities.
The HKSCA was a non-profit organization and all our services and facilitations were provided voluntarily. Except Karachi which was 17th sister city of Houston. No other city existed in the entire South Asian region which had been approved as sister city, he said.
Highlighting some of the humanitarian services provided to Karachi, he said that his organization recently undertook few more projects including a tree plantation project wherein 1,000 trees were being planted in Karachi while 10,000 trees would also be planted all over Pakistan. It had also installed RO plants in North Nazimabad, Malir and Lyari.
He also advised KCCI to strengthen ties and ensure proper follow-up of various initiatives with Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) which was the strongest trade body in the US as corporate offices of more than 500 companies were based in Houston.
Earlier, President KCCI Muhammad Idrees Memon said that since Karachi and Houston were declared sister cities, several delegations from Karachi Chamber visited Houston to explore more avenues of enhancing trade and investment ties with the business community of Houston.
“HKSA in collaboration with KCCI has undoubtedly paved for improved ties between the business communities of the two cities”, he commented while highly appreciating the hospitality and rigorous efforts made by HKSA to make KCCI’s delegations visits from time to time meaningful and result-oriented.
Inviting Houston’s business community to undertake joint ventures in Karachi, President KCCI said Karachi’s huge market offered lucrative trade and investment opportunities to foreign investors who could look into the possibility of collaborating in numerous sectors of economy particularly the blue economy, textiles, garments, petrochemicals, tourism, construction and also the IT sector wherein the business communities of both cities can join hands for establishing IT parks in Karachi.
Keeping in view Houston’s knowledge, experience and expertise in development of SMEs, we can collaborate to promote SMEs in Karachi in addition to paying special attention to the start-ups, he said.