ISLAMABAD, Feb 2 (APP): Mrs. Arancha Gonzalez, Executive Director International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at the PM House here on Thursday.
The Prime Minister welcomed the ITC executive director on her first ever visit to Pakistan, on behalf of the Government of Pakistan. On this occasion, the PM also extended gratitude for the support of ITC to the Government of Pakistan in various trade initiatives, technical assistance and capacity building projects enhancing Pakistan’s capacity to participate in global trade.
The Prime Minister observed that the ITC ED’s visit to Pakistan follows the first ever visit of the WTO DG, which underscores Pakistan’s commitment to participation in multilateral trade as a responsible, effective and positive member of the international community.
The PM informed the executive director of his government’s efforts that stabilized Pakistan’s economy, and is on its way to achieve further higher growth trajectory in the coming months.
The PM expressed that Pakistan is looking forward to enhanced interaction with international organizations in order to adopt and implement best international practices for increasing the country’s share in international trade.
The PM thanked the ED for inaugurating the first ever “She Trades” seminar in Pakistan saying that his government is fully committed to empowerment of women at the broadest level and enhancing their participation in international trade.
The PM informed the ED that his government is currently devising a national e-commerce policy for which the federal Ministers of Finance, Commerce and IT are jointly working.
Mrs Arancha Gonzalez, Executive Director said that Pakistan’s economy has achieved stability and is further improving after the improved security and law and order situation in the country.
She further said that the massive investments in improving the country’s infrastructure, especially the roads and communication networks have started giving dividends. The ED appreciated the government’s concrete steps which have reduced power shortages paving the way for ensuring enhanced economic activities.
She said, ‘This is my first visit to Pakistan as Executive Director International Trade Centre and what I have seen is a country on the move, a country that has made enormous progress on stabilizing the macro economic situation of the country, in improving the infrastructure, improving the security.
All these are essential ingredients to ensure that trade, business and growth can happen and that this growth can translate into benefits for the ordinary men and women in Pakistan’.
‘I had very cordial discussion with the PM and we are now going to be supporting Pakistan in translating all this progress achieved at the hard infrastructure level into softer infrastructure progress’ in entrepreneurship, in simplifying trade rules, in boosting the competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises here in Pakistan so that they could contribute strongly’, added the ED, ITC.
Engineer Khuram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Commerce, Dr Muhammad Saeed, Senior Advisor, ITC, Matthew Anthony Wilson. ITC, Dr Syed Tauqir Shah, Ambassador of Pakistan to the WTO and other senior Government officials were also present during the meeting.
APP/Hamza/mka/VNS Islamabad
