By: Tazeen Akhtar
Additional Secretary Foreign Affairs , Head of Africa Desk Ambassador Hamid Asghar Khan has highlighted tremendous potential of the continent of Africa for Pakistan to foster trade and economic cooperation and suggested high level official visit to African countries. He has shared that African missions in Islamabad are upgrading the representation in Islamabad. He mentioned ,in this regard, that Tunisia and South Africa are posting Ambassador and High Commissioner in Pakistan.
He was addressing to the participants of Pakistan–Africa Diplomatic Roundtable, convened by The DICE ( DICE Diplomacy Inclusion Climate Action Education ) Forum in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 4 September held at Inter Parliamentary Congress IPC Secretariat, Islamabad.
Amb Hamid Asghar Khan , as the torch bearer of Pakistan Africa Cooperation, apprised the participants of the opportunities Pakistan and Africa possess and offer each other that can, once utilized, can change the bilateral trade and relations landscape altoghether.
He described Africa as an “ocean of opportunity” for Pakistan. He noted that the continent’s population of approximately 1.4 billion, vast natural resources, expanding markets and development needs offered considerable potential for Pakistani businesses.
It was a dialogue on Pakistan–Africa building meaningful people-to-people connections.
Ms Aliya Agha, Chairperson, The DICE Forum conducted the dialogue attended by Amb Hamid Asghar Khan , Additional Secretary MOFA Pakistan and Mr. Mohamed Karmoun, the Dean of African Missions in Islamabad , Ambassador of Morocco.
High Commissioners of Kenya, High Commissioner of Mauritius H.E Munsoo Kurrimbaccus (Mansoor Kareem Bakhsh) HE Lt. General (R) Peter Mbogo Njiru, High Commissioner of Rwanda H.E Harerimana Fatou , Ambassador of Zimbabwe H.E Titus Mehliswa Johnathan Abu Basutu, Deputy Head of Mission of Egypt Aly Ashmawy, Honorary Consul Ghana Omar Khalid Butt Fatchima Hassane Paraiso, Programme Assistant, OIC-COMSTECH, Uganda, Boniface Njuguna, Commercial Attaché Kenya participated in the roundtable.
President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce Usman Shaukat represented the business community of Pakistan. From Ministry of Industries and Production Shahid Iqbal Qureshi, Former President Islamabad Stock Exchange Zahid Lateef Khan and Former MD Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Habib ur Rehman were also present.
Amb Hamid Asghar Khan mentioned Pharmaceutical, ITC, Textile and Ready Made Garments as some major sectors to give boost to existing trade.
He specially noted Water as the most important topic to work upon referring the recent floods in Nepal that swept away more than one thousand people in few minutes. He said, water management, division and pricing is big issue between the countries of upstream and downstream. Therefore , Pakistan Africa can see this sector as well, as a common topic.
H.E Munsoo Kurrimbaccus shared the status of Mauritius Pakistan cooperation and said , ” Mauritius has emotional relation with Pakistan and we are keen to enhance trade and investment cooperation with Pakistan but we also need to see that no high level Pakistani delegation has visited out country in 18 years.”
He mentioned Indian medicine and cosmetics arrive in our country sooner than Pakistan. We want to buy it from Pakistan but the delays make it very hard. He shared that Mauritius Pakistan have 33 MoUs pending for last many years and no one has been upgraded to agreement so far.
DHM Egypt Aly Ashmawy briefed the participants about easy business doing and friendly investment policies of his country.
He said, people are heading towards Africa from the traditional markets of the world. Egypt has Suez connecting Mediterranean with Indian Ocean through Red Sea where 06 ports of Egypt open the gates to Africa.
He informed that Egypt and Pakistan are working on connecting Gwadar with Suez Canal Economic Zone . He said, Egypt welcomes all for investments and joint ventures.
Participants discussed opportunities to strengthen educational and business linkages through joint ventures, cultural exchanges, youth engagement and cooperation on climate resilience. They emphasised the need to move beyond occasional interactions and develop sustained institutional, economic and people-to-people connections between Pakistan and African countries.
