Talks on Canada, Pakistan commercial arrangements this Year
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

KARACHI: The first round of discussions on commercial arrangements between Canada and Pakistan will occur this year.

This was stated by the Canadian High Commissioner in Pakistan, David B. Collins.

He was talking to reporters after addressing the members of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP) at a local hotel on Thursday evening.

The envoy said the discussions would be aimed at to how further improve the commercial ties between the two countries.

That would allow the Pakistan side to express interest as to how Canada can help more in this respect, he added.

David Collins pointed out that the trading situation between Canada and Pakistan is fairly robust at the moment and there are vibrant trading relations at present.

He said the bilateral trade between the two countries is to the tune of about 600 million dollars and it is slightly in Canada's favour.

He said, "We are working hard because the trend is that the trade from Pakistan is going down a little bit so we are looking at opportunities to try and address that challenge."

"As you may know there are several Canadian companies which are very actively looking in Pakistan for investment purposes," David Collins remarked.

He stated that the most recent major announcement was by Barrick Gold who are working for developing a gold and copper mine in Balochistan and are beginning a 75 million dollars exploration activity now.

"We are active in energy. We are active in telecommunications and we are also active in traditional areas of agriculture such as wheat, oils and pulses and such sorts of things," the Canadian High Commissioner stated.

He pointed out that there is a lot more that can be done and exhorted the `Pakistani business colleagues and friends' here along with the Pakistan office of export development to look more aggressively at the Canadian market and make the connections that are needed to be made between the business communities.

"But the trade situation actually it is fairly buoyant as we speak today," he said.●