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KARACHI: Managing Director, South Asia Affairs, US Chamber of Commerce, Washington D.C. Dr. Herbert Davis, who is leading a high trade mission Thursday evening described business conditions in Pakistan as excellent for foreign investment.

The business community of the United States is now very keen to invest in South Asian countries including Pakistan, he said while addressing the Pakistan business community members at a dinner hosted by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) at a local hotel.

The US Chamber of Commerce is exploring various avenues to increase cooperation in trade and investment with Pakistan and other Asian countries.

Presently, he said, the US Chamber had three councils i.e. US-Pakistan Business Council, US-Bangladesh Business Council and US-India Business Council. In a couple of years, the US Chamber would be more involved in trade and investment with the SAARC countries, he said.

He referred to the US visits by President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and other senior officials of Pakistan which have helped a lot in increasing economic cooperation between the two countries.

He said in the next few months, more US trade delegation would visit Pakistan. He underlined the need for public-private partnership as it is the only effective tool to steer an economy.

The representative of the US Chamber lauded the signing of trade and investment facilitation agreement (TIFF) between US and Pakistan and said this would help reach free trade agreement. "TIFF is the only beginning. It may take some years to sign FTA," he remarked.

Earlier, Vice Chairman of US-Pakistan Business Council and FPCCI Arshad Alam spoke about various aspects of bilateral trade and investment of the two countries and suggested various modalities to further boost economic cooperation between Pakistan and the US for benefits of the two people.

He said Pakistan had the best investment policy whererin a foreign investor could start his business within few days and start exporting his products without any restriction. He has no binding on his principal amount and the profits as well. He said that Pakistan had planned to hold three single-county exhibitions in different regions of the US like New York, Chicago and California. He said the the US visiting delegation was very important as it comprised of people from multi-national companies especially from Information Technology sector. He said that Pakistan trade delegation would soon visit the United States.

The delegation would have people from the industries whose products were already in the US markets and those which could occupy place in the US markets in future. There would also be people from IT sector. FPCCI President Riaz Tata called for effective implementation of TIFA signed between Pakistan and the United States.

He emphasized the enhanced cooperation in all sectors mainly joint ventures in service sector as 52% of the total world trade comes from the services sector. The US delegation members later held one-to-one meetings with their Pakistani counter parts to discuss possibilities of joint ventures and exchange technologies in the particular fields. FPCCI Vice President Engr. M.A. Jabbar presented vote of thanks.