Islamabad : Haityam Yakhluf, CEO, United Exhibitions & Conferences, Palestine held an online meeting with Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and discussed the possibility of holding a 1^st Arab-Pakistan  Business Forum and Exhibition in Pakistan in September or October this year for promoting trade and investment relations between Arab countries and Pakistan. He said that about 100 Arab businessmen and women have shown keen interest to attend the Arab-Pakistan 1^st Business Forum in addition to about 50 participants in the exhibition. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President ICCI and Ms. Aya Arafat, Advisor to Palestinian Ambassador in Pakistan also attended the meeting.

Haityam Yakhluf said that the Business Forum and Exhibition would provide a good opportunity to the private sectors of Arab countries and Pakistan to interact and explore opportunities of bilateral trade, JVs and investment in areas of interest. He said that his company was also interested in promoting Pakistan’s investment in Arab countries including Palestine. He said that ICCI should share the details of potential sectors of Pakistan’s economy that offered good potential for collaboration between Arab countries and Pakistan.

Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry welcomed the proposal from Palestinian company to organize an Arab-Pakistan 1^st Business Forum in Pakistan in collaboration with ICCI and assured him of his full support to make it a highly successful event. He said that Pakistan was a diversified economy with great potential to promote trade and investment relations with Arab countries and hoped that the said Business Forum would be a right step to transform potential opportunities into realities. He highlighted textiles, rice, fruits & vegetables, oil & gas, construction & real estate, cement, IT, pharmaceutical, leather, sports, electronics, light engineering and others as potential sectors for collaboration between Pakistan with Arab countries for trade, JVs and investment. He said that the Government of Pakistan was working for one window facility besides offering attractive incentives to foreign investors and emphasized that the investors of Arab countries should take advantage of these incentives to setup JVs and investment in Pakistani SEZs.

Ms. Fatma Azim, Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that close cooperation between Pakistani and Arab countries businesswomen would be very instrumental in further strengthening their trade and economic relations. Both sides shared many other ideas to increase business and investment relations between Pakistan and Arab countries.