Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, Kuninori Matsuda, has said that Japan is willing to import mangoes, rice, fish and textile products from Pakistan and requested that arrangements be made at ports that could facilitate agri-product exports.
A Pakistani newspaper on Wednesday reported that the envoy voiced hope that with regional peace and stability, regional trade would flourish, offering better opportunities to Pakistan.
He stated this in a meeting with Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, which was held to discuss the strengthening of bilateral trade ties.
Japan a time-tested friend of Pakistan
During the meeting, Shaikh said Japan was a time-tested friend of Pakistan and had always supported the country. He expressed confidence that Pakistan’s relationship with Japan would continue to become stronger with each passing day.
The adviser spoke about the state of economy during the past year and the steps taken by the government to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shaikh stated that before Covid-19, Pakistan’s economy had started moving in the right direction. “We had been successful in increasing our tax revenues, controlling current account deficit, generated primary surplus, controlled expenditures, put a ban on borrowing from the central bank and were successful in creating an environment conducive for exports,” he added.
He said he was very hopeful that Pakistan would regain stability as the number of active Covid-19 cases was declining.
The envoy expressed hope that with regional peace and stable political situation, the regional trade would flourish, offering better opportunities to Pakistan.
He told the adviser that Japan would extend support to Pakistan for debt relief and after preliminary work on the initiative, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be formally signed with Pakistan. He assured the government of Pakistan of complete assistance from Tokyo.
Long history of economic co-operation between the two countries Pakistan and Japan started with similar hardships. The Japanese economy was torn out by the World War.
Pakistan got independence and faced a very poor economy, particularly, having a negligible industrial base. Pakistan did have raw material and good agricultural resources. Pakistan neglected human resource development and kept on changing economic policies without achieving their goals.
As a result, Pakistan remained underdeveloped. However, Japan converted the novel nation to a very successful industrial labour and entrepreneurs. The cooperation between bureaucracy, banks and businessmen (The INK) converted the economy of Japan, which is now an integral part of world trade.