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The chairman of the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB), Iuliu Stocklosa, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Romania, Zafar Iqbal, had a meeting on Wednesday, at the CCIB headquarters, the two trying to identify concrete ways of capitalization of the economies' potential of the two sides, according to a press release sent by the Romanian organization.
The involvement of reference companies from Romania in modernizing and retrofitting industrial compounds shipped by Romania to Pakistan before 1989, as well as the supply of spare parts and equipment for modernizing these production units, can form a first development direction of bilateral economic relationship, Iuliu Stocklosa said.
The head of the CCIB also showed that Romania can be a gateway for these Pakistani products to the European Union, taking into consideration both Romania's quality as a member of the EU, as well as its geo-strategic position and announced that CCIB will establish in the following period a database of companies, from various fields, interested in collaborating with Pakistani partners, in order for it to be transmitted, through the Embassy of Pakistan, to the chambers of commerce and business organizations from this country, in order to put supply and demand directly, quickly and efficiently in contact.
Pakistan and Romania, countries with traditional economic relations, offer numerous opportunities, in both the commercial field, as well as in the investment one, but there is a need for a better connection of the two business communities, including through organizing some economic missions, when the pandemic situation will allow it, so that the potential of the markets mentioned earlier be capitalized in a larger measure, said Zafar Iqbal.
The ambassador added that apart from those mentioned by the chairman of the CCIB, there can be taken into account projects in infrastructure, such as extending and retrofitting the Pakistani railway. Also, Zafar Iqbal appreciated the development of cooperation in education and culture as being useful.
In 2020, the Romanian - Pakistani commercial exchanges registered a growth, given that Romania's external trade suffered a contraction, because of the pandemic. Thus, bilateral trade amounted to 100.5 million dollars (+121.2% from 2019), of which exports of 67.6 million dollars (+286.2% from the previous year), and imports of 32.9 million dollars (+17.8% from the previous year).
Mainly, Romania exports to Pakistan sea-going vessels, wood, fuels and mineral oils, cars, mechanical equipment and machinery and imports textile items and materials.
During the first two months of 2021, the bilateral trade volume reached 14.1 million dollars (-56.2% from the similar period of 2020), of which exports were 7.4 million dollars (-74%), and imports 6.7 million dollars (+29.5%).
