Pakistan eyes new direction to benefit from Asian markets
'Pakistan Times' Punjab Bureau

MULTAN: Foreign minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday that country was in the process of heading towards a new direction under his ‘Look-East’ vision of economic diplomacy aimed at strengthening bilateral trade ties with Asian countries.

While addressing a press conference at the local circuit house, the foreign minister identified worsening economic situation as an internal threat and promised relentless efforts to address thorny issues of trade deficit and others to help Pakistan survive amid challenging competitive environment.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, Pakistan attaches greater importance to friendly ties with the West and the US which is a strong military and economic power.
He, however, added that attention must also be paid to the Asian countries which are registering phenomenal growth amid global phenomenon of recession, inflation and unemployment.

He said that Asian countries were growing at the rate of 11-12 percent amid global challenging environment. Naming countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and others, he said that Pakistan must learn from these success stories and promote bilateral trade ties with them and all others to accrue benefits.

He said that bilateral trade ties will gradually become the foundation for relations among the countries instead of political or ideological links in the days to come.

The foreign minister said: “We are trying to take a new direction.”

He said, Pakistan enjoys time-tested friendly ties with China but added that bilateral trade relations with China needed to be expanded and strengthened further.

China is rich in technology and resources and is willing to offer concessional credit to Pakistan for our development.

“Our foreign policy is based on maintaining friendly ties with all countries particularly the neighbouring countries.”

To a question, Shah Mehmood said that foreign office and ambassadors were doing a good job despite difficulties and limited resources. “But, it does not mean there is no room for improvement.”

When asked about measures to improve the performance of commercial attaches and counsellors, he said that it also involves the ministries of commerce, and finance, but promised that commercial attaches will be given targets to enhance Pakistani products export.

To a question on human smuggling, he said that government will look into the matter thoroughly to find out lacunae and will amend the law if needed to check it.

He, however, also appealed the people to avail services of only the established and licensed agencies for going abroad for jobs.●