Islamabad: Huge potential exists between Pakistan and Japan to further strengthen economic ties as Pakistan offers a big market for investment in different sectors and hoped that the Japanese companies would tap that potential.

These remarks were made by Mr.Hiroshi Oe, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI). He said that major reasons that keep Japanese companies away from investing in Pakistan are security and energy supply.

The Ambassador said that he has been trying to provide Japanese companies with opportunities to clear their perception gap and turn their eyes to the opportunities that Pakistan possesses.

He said that Key areas of trade and investment between Pakistan and Japan could be textile, surgical equipments, furniture and automobile industry. He said that many big Japanese auto-industries investors are seriously planning to shift their units to Pakistan from Thailand due to heavy floods.

In his welcome address, Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI said that Japan is third biggest and one of the trillion dollar economies of the world and is an important trading partner of Pakistan as well as a major donor.

He said that ICCI would also plan to take a business delegation to Japan as frequent exchange of sector-specific delegations would bring closer the business communities of both the countries.

Mr.Bakhtawari said that today Pakistan’s major issue is energy deficit as our economy is facing huge setbacks because of energy crisis.

He said that our country needs Japanese technical assistance and investment in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, thermal, and biogas.

He said that Pakistan is a resource rich country, but lacks technology and expertise; whereas Japan is a resource scarce country, but it is technologically advanced, thus, Pakistan and Japan could benefit a lot with mutual cooperation in areas like energy, mining, agriculture, trade and investment.

ICCI President informed the Ambassador that ICCI has completed the super structure of Export Display Centre which would serve as window to the world for Pakistani products as well as foreign companies could also display their products that would definitely enhance the bilateral trade ties between Pakistan and other countries.