Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said the country's trade volume with Turkey is "insufficient" considering their fraternal relationship as he set a trade volume target of $5 billion within three years.
Paying a three-day official visit to Turkey at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Sharif spoke at the Turkey-Pakistan Business Forum in Ankara.
"When this happens, I am the happiest person. I will be. We have everything necessary to reach that level," he noted.
Noting that Turkey has the world's leading contractors, he praised the Turkish construction sector and called attention to the many infrastructure projects the country has been carrying out around the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Alluding to the current $1.1 billion trade volume between the two countries, Shehbaz Sharif said: "Unfortunately, the brotherly relationship between Turkey and Pakistan does not reflect adequately on commercial relations."
Businesspeople from both countries are determined to increase trade and investments, he underlined.
"Economic barriers and obstacles between the two countries should be allowed to be overcome. Whatever is necessary should be done in this regard," he said.
He also invited Turkish businesspeople to his country, saying: "We have learned from the mistakes we made in the past. I do not make any political accusations. We will roll out the red carpet in our country, we will serve you Turkish coffee."
Also speaking at the forum, Turkey's Trade Minister Mehmet Muş noted that trade with Pakistan increased by 22.5% in 2021 compared to the previous year despite the pandemic's negative impact on world economies.
"When we look at the first four months of this year, there is an increase of approximately 7% compared to the same period last year. This is pleasing, but we are far behind the level," he underlined.
Meanwhile, the chair of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu, said the visa application procedure is a serious obstacle to trade between the two countries.
"At least, we need to save the business world from this visa problem," he noted.
In 2018, the sale of military ships to Pakistan went down in history as the largest single-item export deal in the history of the Turkish defense industry.
The value of the deal is $1 billion. Soon after, another agreement of greater value was inked, which was the sale of 30 ATAK helicopters to Pakistan, this time with a volume of $1.5 billion.
These deals are an indication of how much the defense cooperation between the two countries has improved, especially in the field of aviation and navy.
During his visit, the Pakistani premier will also meet leading Turkish companies in various fields, including energy, infrastructure, e-commerce, municipal agro-based industry and the IT sector.
