Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Leading Palm oil importer and former Chairman Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) Atif Ikram Sheikh said that Pakistan greatly values Indonesia’s democratic leadership in the Indo Pacific.

He expressed these views on the occasion of 76th anniversary of Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia and the 54th ASEAN Day. On the occasion, Atif Ikram Sheikh welcomed and conveyed warm wishes to the Ambassador of Indonesia to Pakistan Adam M. Tugio and the people of Indonesia.

He said the close partnership between Pakistan and Indonesia is more important now than ever. We look forward to working together to deepen our economic and people-to-people ties, fight the pandemic and drive early recovery and move towards a shared goal of peace and prosperity.

“We will promote trade, peace and stability through our sincere efforts as Indonesia is among the top ten trading partners of Pakistan. The trade relations between the two countries have come a long way with Indonesia becoming the 8th largest trading partner of Pakistan in 2018. In 2020, the bilateral trade volume was the US $ 2.6 billion and now it’s almost three billion dollars”, he added.

Atif Ikram Sheikh said that we have asked the government to slash import duty on palm oil so that masses can get ghee and cooking oil at reduced prices.

He also asked the palm oil-exporting countries to boost output and slash export taxes to control prices as billions of people consume this oil.