Pakistan’s exports to China up by 70 percent in October: Ghulam Qadir

BEIJING, Nov 22 (APP): Pakistan’s export to China touched US$368 million in October this year, showing 70 percent increase as compare with same month of the previous year, Commercial Counselor, Pakistan Embassay Beijing, Ghulam Qadir said on Wednesday. “We’re very happy to note that Pakistan’s exports to China for October as per the Chinese data, have improved by 70% and have touched US$368 million figure after a very long time. And there’s an appreciable increase of over US$150 million in a month,” he told APP.

He informed that the main products which were exported last month included sesame, seafood, rice and other agricultural products.
Ghulam Qadir opined that the increased exports were the result of the participation of over 200 Chinese businessmen in the Food and Agri Expo held in Karachi this year. “We arranged many meetings between the Chinese businessmen and traders with their Pakistani counterparts and we must continue to work on it to see more positive results,” he added.

Responding to a question about further increase of Pakistani products to China keeping in view the huge potential, he said that Pakistan will soon start exporting meat to Chinese market. All out efforts are being made for value addition in dairy products, chilly, cherries and sesame seed, adding, “We want to convert sesame seed into sesame oil and byproducts and work is underway in this regard.” Ghulam Qadir said that in terms of food and agriculture, the country expects more exports to China.

“Similarly, for textiles and other pet exports, we are pinning our hopes on more presence of Pakistani players in China through e-commerce and other platforms.” He said that copper is also one of the biggest exports to China and the government is focusing on turning our copper into value added copper.
About Chinese support and investment in different sectors, he said that the government expects investment in food and agriculture and we really like all the Chinese investors to make best use of the US$30 billion market. It should be better utilized with more investment, more technology transfer and more Chinese characteristics and we can make a big impact from that.

“Similarly, we also want the Chinese enterprises to come to Pakistan and invest in textiles, footwear, toys, agriculture and all the labour-intensive sectors plus electronics, light engineering, and consumer products,” he added. He said the government is also focusing on establishing a copper processing plant for which the Chinese investment will be welcomed.