Benefit from GSP Plus for economy

Lahore: German Ambassador to Pakistan Cyrill Jean Nunn pointed out that the GSP Plus Status was not just textile-specific but also offered opportunities to other sectors of the economy, and therefore, Pakistani businessmen should enhance their interaction with their European counterparts.

The ambassador was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.

“The GSP Plus will boost Pakistan’s business with the European countries in almost all sectors of the economy including leather and sports goods,” he said. “Germany intends to develop and strengthen mutual trade relations with Pakistan and will make all-out efforts to ensure access for exporters to the European Union (EU) and German markets.”

He was hopeful of future investments by German companies that showed a keen interest in Pakistan, especially in the energy sector.

“Several German companies are ready to establish joint ventures with the business community of Pakistan in different trade fields.  Both countries have enjoyed friendly and cordial trade relations, and the time is ripe to further strengthen this,” said Nunn.

Apart from bilateral trade and economic relations, LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari shed light on the rich German history, culture and its contribution to the international society particularly after the Second World War

Lashari said that a consistent rise in two-way trade was evident of the fact that the joint efforts made at the public and private sectors level were paying off. Therefore, there was a need to maintain that positive trend to minimize the trade deficit gap.

“Pakistan has been experiencing a positive balance of trade with Germany but in 2012, it was not the case. However, we are hoping to go back to the same scenario,” Lashari said.