Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan, Minister of State for Commerce and Textile Industry visited Bucharest, Romania on November 21 2013 to mobilize the support of Romanian Government on its Parliamentarians in the European Parliament for their support for Pakistan’s candidature of GSP Plus status in the European Union.
The other objective of the visit was to kick start the bilateral trade and investment relations between the two friendly countries, says a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce here Friday. The Minister had a heavy agenda of meetings in Bucharest.
During his meeting with the Minister of Economy of Romania the Minister underscored the importance of GSP Plus for Pakistan and urged the Romanian Government to support Pakistan in the remaining phases of the approval of GSP Plus scheme.
The Minister highlighted the important steps the Muslim League and Government were taking to improve the energy situation and investment environment in Pakistan and invited his counterpart to energize the existing institutional arrangements between the two countries for enhancing the trade and investment relations between the two countries.
In this regard, he particularly invited the Romanian companies to explore the possibilities of collaboration with Pakistani companies in the sectors of energy, textiles and mining.
The Romanian Minister thanked the Pakistani Minister and expressed the hope that with this visit a new chapter in the bilateral trade and investment relations of the two countries would begin.
The Romanian minister assured the visiting Pakistan minster of the full support of the Romanian Government for Pakistan’s candidature for GSP Plus and promised that the Romanian Government would stay positively engaged with the remaining stages of approval in the European Parliament.
In a meeting with State Secretary for Small and Medium Enterprises and Business Environment Dan Enache, both sides discussed the ways and means to fill the information gap regarding the investment opportunities for the SMEs in each other’s country and agreed to establish focal points in the Embassies of both countries to provide all the necessary information and facilitation with a view to develop Pakistan-Romania joint ventures in Romania for the EU market and in Pakistan for the larger Asian market.
In a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Romania Mr. Titus Corlatean, the Minister of State for Commerce and Textile urged the Romanian Minister to play a proactive part in helping Pakistan get GSP Plus in EU and take the lead in translating the traditional friendly relations between the two countries into strong economic relationship.
In his statement, the Romanian Minister thanked the Pakistani Minister for undertaking this visit and hoped that the high-level contact thus established would be maintained in the coming days also.
He assured the Minister of State of the full support of the Romanian Government for Pakistan’s GSP Plus candidature and hoped that this would create more opportunities for the businessmen of both the countries to develop mutually beneficial trade and investment relations, particularly in textiles, natural resources and agriculture.
The Minister of State raised the issue of delay in issuance of visa to Pakistani businessmen visiting Romania.
The Romanian Minister promised to look into the matter and help improve the situation.
The Minister of State met president of the Romanian Parliamentary Friendship Group for Pakistan MP Dan Cristian Popescu.
The Minister of state underscored the importance of direct linkages between the parliamentarians of the two countries.
He appreciated the active role being played by the Friendship Group in promoting bilateral relations and wished more success to the ongoing initiatives.
The Minister of State thanked MP Dan Cristian Popescu for his efforts to persuade Romanian members of European Parliament for supporting Pakistan and to make the GSP Plus an opportunity of win-win partnerships between the two countries.
MP Dan Cristian Popescu welcomed the Pakistani Minister and shared with him numerous initiatives taken by his group to bring both the countries together.
He expressed his desire and hope that Pakistan would get the GSP Plus with the collective efforts under way.
He assured the Minister of State of his efforts to reach out to the members of the European Parliament to that effect.
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