ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has proposed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with South Korea that covers trade, investment and services so that trade between the two countries could be further enhanced.
This was stated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won who along with a high level delegation called on him in Islamabad on Monday.
During the meeting, the prime minister invited his South Korean counterpart to prepare a Country Partnership Strategy between the two countries for the next three years.
The prime minister said that it is heartening to note that trade between our two countries reached $1.6 billion in 2012.
Sharif said that Pakistan offers huge opportunities to the Korean business companies in energy generation including hydel, wind, solar, biomass and coal generation.
Nawaz Sharif appreciated the ‘Joint Business Forum’ organized by Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency and Board of Investment, Pakistan, on the sidelines of this visit and expressed hope that as an outcome of the forum the Korean companies would be engaged in the Energy, Infrastructure Development, Railways and Telecommunication sectors.
The Pakistani premier said that construction of off-shore and on-shore LNG terminals also offer investment opportunities to Korean companies and Pakistan would welcome and facilitate Korean capital and technology in these sectors. Nawaz Sharif said the Free Economic Zone along the China-Pak economic Corridor also offers investment opportunities to Korean investors.
In addition, he invited Korean financial institutions to start their operations in Pakistan, adding that opening of a branch of Korean bank in Pakistan would boost business between the two countries.
