CG South Korea says Pakistan imports $1.5 billion worth of South Korean products each year
Our Correspondent
KARACHI: Suleman Chawla, Acting President FPCCI, has apprised that South Korea plans to invest $1 billion in Pakistan’s various industrial sectors and economically significant initiatives over the next 5 years and it will help Pakistan in many ways: (i) Pakistan will receive the much needed capital inflows in dollar terms (ii) the country will be able to adapt to the internationally-acclaimed hi-tech industrial techniques and standards to compete regionally & internationally (iii) Pakistani industrial units will secure numerous joint ventures in textile value-addition, IT, automobiles, healthcare devices and agriculture – to name a few (iv) and last, but not the least, hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created.
Acting FPCCI Chief proposed that South Korea and Pakistani industrialists should form a joint forum of relevant business leaders & diplomatic staff from both sides to turn the huge investment of $1 billion into a reality through prioritizing the right areas, B2B matchmaking and establishing an efficient liaison with the authorities.
Kim Haksung, Consul General of South Korea in Karachi, stated that Pakistan imports $1.5 billion worth of South Korean products each year; while it exports only $400 million worth of products. This phenomenon is causing a bilateral trade deficit of an approximate $1.1 billion and his government is willing to facilitate Pakistani exporters of goods and services to bridge the gap. He also informed that over the past sixty years, South Korea has increased its GDP by 410 folds. Very few countries of the world have posted such enormous and persistent economic growth, he added.
Shabbir Mansha, VP FPCCI, emphasized that IT is the most important industry of Pakistan vis-à-vis South Korea; both for enhancement of exports and exporting skilled human resources in IT. He noted that only 10,000 workers of Pakistani origin are working in South Korea and that number should have been hundreds of thousands. Additionally, South Korea has the potential to be one of the top most destinations for Pakistan for earning the foreign exchange reserves through remittances in the years to come.
Sohail Nisar, Chairman of FPCCI’s Pak-Korea business council, predicted that South Korea has progressed with such a pace and resilience over the past few decades that he foresees it becoming one of the world’s top 5 economies in another decade or so down the line as they are already in top 10 economies of the world. He added that there are a number of large business houses and conglomerates in Pakistan which can make their mark in the international markets just through benefiting from the technological might of South Korea. They even have their own investments to pool in with South Korean companies through joint ventures, he added.
Zohaib Khan, Convener of FPCCI’s Central Standing Committee on IT, maintained that South Korea has been instrumental in developing Islamabad’s IT Park and now they are yet again at it with Karachi’s IT Park. He added that Pakistan is one of the most attractive business-outsourcing, freelancing, HR-sourcing and IT services imports destinations for South Korea on the back of a large pool of young, skilled and accomplished IT workforce.