RECODER REPORT

KARACHI: Japan will work with the new government to extend economic cooperation to Pakistan to further cement the bilateral ties, Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Takashi Kurai stated here on Thursday.

The bilateral economic cooperation is still far from the actual potential, Japanese envoy noted and announced that Japan would be working with the new Pakistani government to solidify this in the coming days.

Japanese Ambassador was addressing CEO’s Summit 2018, organised by Employers’ Federation of Pakistan (EFP) as the chief guest. He touched upon the various areas of bilateral economic ties between Japan and Pakistan and said that exchange of high-level delegations would put in practice this cooperation.

He disclosed a high-level business delegation would be visiting Pakistan by end of this year, which would explore more avenues of cooperation between the two countries.

Kurai said that there are around eighty Japanese companies, which have been operating in Pakistan and desired for expansion in their operations to contribute in the national economy of Pakistan.

“We are trying to find the local partners for Japanese companies and Japanese partners for Pakistani companies to bolster the economic cooperation between the two countries”, Japanese envoy stated.

Later, CEOs of various companies spoke at the summit, whose themes was “Shaping the Future of Businesses” and shared their experiences for successful business ventures in Pakistan. They also urged for bringing in quality and innovation in the business models to cater the needs of the fast changing global trade patterns.

Shazia Syed, CEO Unilever Pakistan said that Pakistan has high population of young people, which has, fortunately synchronized with the global consumer patterns. “Pakistani consumer is in a state of transformation, which can be catered with the change in business strategy”, she believed.

Alexander Reisch, CEO Philip Morris Pakistan urged that businesses should be more inclusive by putting the consumers at the top priority because they are the ones.

Amina Sayyed, Chairperson Oxford University Press urged for promoting the culture of institutionalization in the businesses to deal with the emerging challenges and complexities.

Naseem-ul-Ghani Sahito, Commissioner Sindh Employees Social Security Institution pointed out that Pakistan’s business sector would be dealing hard times in view of Chinese imports in Pakistan and said that myopic approach of policy makers and business companies would be putting the local companies in an awkward situation.

“We have not been doing any thing substantial and practical in the face of huge challenges”, he noted and believed that this might be proved a disaster for the local trade sector.

He called upon the businessmen to put pressure on the political forces of the country to create conducive environment for the local industries for its operations. Majid Aziz, President EFP also spoke on the occasion.

The event was attended by large number of CEOs. In the interactive sessions, they share their valuable thoughts, experiences and strategic wisdom to transform their organization in the fast moving world of cooperate excellences.