Report on the visit of trade delegation to the Russian Federation organised by TDAP
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15 June 2016
On the photo: Mr. S.M. Muneer20 members of high profile trade delegation consist of textiles, fruits & Vegetables, sports goods, surgical instruments, leather goods, lead by Mr. S.M. Muneer Chief Executive of TDAP visited Russia from 30th May to 7th June 2016.
Russia is of great importance as it has huge potential market of textile, agricultural, sports, and food products while Russia stands the fifth largest importer after EU, US, China and Japan. Russia imports almost 70% fresh fruits of their total consumption and this is one of the categories where Russia is substantially less sufficient. Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $419.34 million in 2014-15 where exports of Pakistan stands US $187,633m and Imports US $224,926m. This is trade is far less than the potential as Russia total imports from world are US $197 billion and share of Pakistan is negligible.
In order to diversify its market and product Russia which is the land of opportunities for fresh produce & food products, surgical and sports, has been declared as focus market and Pakistan is targeting this market by approaching all modern marketing tactics including the Government to Government level talks with Russian Federation for bilateral trade, enhancing business cooperation and demolishing business barrier, participating in international exhibitions and sending delegations.
Republic of Bashkortostan
The delegation headed by Mr. Muneer CE TDAP visited Bashkortoartan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and had meeting with Mr Azat Fazalyev President of the CCI of Republic of Bashkortostan along with Mr. Rustam Kamaletdinov Chairman State Committee of Trade and Consumer rights protection. Meeting was also attended by more than 50 businessmen from the Republic. Mr. Azat Fazlyev welcomed and appreciated the visit of Pak delegation to Ufa. Mr. Muneer invited business community of the region to visit Pakistan and highlighted strength of different Pakistani products being represented by the visiting delegation. Mr Rustam in his speech informed that 4.1m people are living in area of 500 sq km. The Bashkortostan is an area industry rich and have huge potential for Pakistani products. After the formal meeting B2B session was held and our businessmen had very fruitful meetings with businessmen from Bashkortostan.
Trade Delegation also visited Zur Bazar to see the infrastructure of warehousing and Zatonsky Market Wholesale Warehouse and fruit market in village Mokeosov, Ufa. The delegation found huge potential for dry dates and fresh fruits and vegetables and expecting a good breakthrough in this sector.
Delegation led by Mr. S.M. Muneer also met with Mr. I. Mikhametdonov vice Prime Minister of Republic of Bashkortostan. Delegation was informed that state is interested in importing textile products, leather, footwear and fruits and vegetables. In addition to this the state is also interested to import Halal food specially meat from Pakistan. The Bashkortostan state is good in producing fine quality of honey and petrochemicals. Mr. Muneer told the Russia is our focal market as declared by the Prime Minister of Pakistan after his meeting with President Putin at Ufa during SCO conference. TDAP is following vision of Prime Minister for product and market diversification. Mr. Muneer invited the vice PM to visit Pakistan with a trade delegation.
Republic of Tatarstan
In the 2nd leg of the visit of the delegation, had meeting with Chamber of Commerce and Industry Republic of Tatarstan (CCIRT).
The Deputy Chairman of CCIRT Mr. Gerasimov Valerity in his welcome address informed that this chamber is working since last 20 years and this is first time a delegation from Pakistan is visiting Tatarstan. This region is among 5 leading chambers with 2200 members representing all major sectors. The Deputy Chairman informed that there are huge potential of trade among Pakistan and Tatarstan. He said that we are open for trade and economic ties and joint ventures. He assured full cooperation for Pakistani businessmen.
Mr. Muneer Chief Executive TDAP in his address highlighted sectors being represented in delegation. He also informed that Russia is our focused market especially after Shanghais Cooperation organisation (SCO) meeting in Ufa last year where Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sharif and President of Russia Mr. Vladimir Putin declared this on joint statement. The CE, TDAP informed the presence of huge trade potential among both regions. The formal meeting was followed by B2B meetings where all the delegates had fruitful meetings with their Tatarstan counterparts. On behalf of TDAP, Mr. S.M. Muneer also invited the counterparts to visit Pakistan and assured all kind of assistance to them. The CE, TDAP also discussed the possibility of holding single country exhibitions in both countries.
The delegation visited office of the Investment Development Agency and had meeting with Mr. Marat Bukharaev Deputy Chief Executive of Tatarstan Investment Development Agency. Mr. Marat informed about the potential of investment in Tatarastan. There is huge potential of investment in as joint venture for establishment of juice processing factory in the region since special economic zone and tax relaxations are available in the region.. The Tatarstan region ranked number 1 in attracting foreign investment having 811M dollar investment in 2015 in machinery and heavy industry. USA, Japan, China and Europe are leading investors.
Pakistani delegates were very happy with information provided and potential of developing business relations with the help of Government of Tatarstan and TDAP. There will be huge potential of Pakistani football since next FIFA world cup will be in Russian in 2018. They region was more interested in agriculture and textile sectors for investment and are keen to import raw materials from Pakistan.
The chief executive TDAP along with Pakistani delegation met with Mr. Ildar Khalikov Prime Minister of Tatarstan in his office. The primer welcomed Pakistani delegation and was very happy on visit of delegation to this important region of Russia. This is first delegation of any kind from Pakistan to Tatarstan have 3.8m population. The prime minister gave briefing about the Tatarstan having 25% share of oil in economy petrochemical 38%. The other core products include machinery military ships and medicine. The prime minister was keen to have bilateral trade relationship with Pakistan and asked to develop a strategy for joint investment in leather, information technology, footwear, and construction. The PM also offered tax holidays for Pakistani businessmen.
Mr. Muneer in his address highlighted the problems being faced by Pakistani business community including non tariff barriers. He informed that delegation is visiting this region on special instruction of Prime Minister of Pakistan and offered cooperation in developing a strategy for enhancing trade relationship. Pakistani products have huge potential in textile leather footwear rice and fruits and vegetables.
Both the delegation agreed to constitute joint working group for enhancing trade relations. The PM of Tatarstan nominated Mr Rustam Karbov Deputy Minister as focal person for this working group.
Delegation lead by Mr. S.M. Muneer also had a meeting with Deputy Minister of Economy who gave presentation about ongoing projects of economic development and business opportunities in Tatarsta. The Economic Ministry gave details of list of buyers and sellers of different products and certification required which can be used for future market exploration activities. The chief executive TDAP gave a speech on available potential for joint cooperation among both regions. The meeting was attended by senior officials from economic ministry of Tatarstan and delegation from TDAP.
Moscow
In the last leg of the visit to Russia, delegation arrived Moscow and had meeting with The Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of the Russian Federation Mr. GEORGY PETROV. The meeting was attended by Deputy Director of foreign relations Ms. TATIANA VIKTORIVNA, Regional Director of International Cooperation Department of CCI Mr. VLADIMIR SHEVLIAKOV, Deputy Chairman of Committee on Economic cooperation with the countries of Asia and Oceania & Acting Chairman of RBCCP Mr. SERGEY VASIILEV, Director of Saint Petersburg Section of RBCCP, SERGEY MIKAELYAN and Executive Director of the Russian Business Council for Cooperation with Pakistan Dr ZAHID ALI KHAN. In the opening speech, Mr. Georgi Petrov, said that the cooperation with Pakistan in trade and economic sphere, based on the intergovernmental agreement on trade and economic cooperation signed in 1999, provides mutually granting the parties MFN trade and shipping, and the implementation of trade transactions settled in freely convertible currencies.
Describing the current level of mutual turnover between Pakistan and Russia, Mr. Georgy Petrov noted that, in 2014, it reached 457.6 million dollars. The main export items were food products and agricultural raw materials, timber, pulp, paper and metal products. Russian imports were textiles, footwear, agricultural and food products. He further said that Pakistan’s share in Russia’s import does not exceed 0.06 percent, and investment cooperation between the two countries is almost none. In addition to that the trade is unstable and prone to crises in the world economy and the effects of internal problems. The Vice President of Russian Chamber of Commerce believes that the modest rates of bilateral trade and economic cooperation is low due to a number of factors, including weak contacts between entrepreneurs of the two countries and their lack of awareness about opportunities in the markets of Russia and Pakistan. Summing up his speech, the Vice-President of the Federation Chamber of Commerce expressed hope for further expansion of Russian-Pakistani mutually beneficial business cooperation and suggested investment and industrial cooperation between the two countries. He emphasised for exchange of information. He was optimistic that textile imports from Pakistan would increase as Pakistan strong in cotton.
SERGEY VASELIEV said that the investment cooperation would have a more balanced and sustainable bilateral trading and economic relations between two counties. In his view, there are good prospects in the energy and industrial supply and various mechanical and electrical products to Pakistan.
The head of the Pakistani delegation Mr. S. M. MUNEER, thanked for the invitation to visit Russia and the warm reception given to them. He said that the Russian-Pakistani trade and economic relations are rapidly growing, but not yet fully implemented and have a potential for further growth and development of mutually beneficial partnership. The leader of Pakistani delegation Mr. S. M. Muneer, emphasized that the Pakistan is interested in Russian investment and further cooperation in the leading sectors of the economy, as well as in the supply of Russian engineering products, in particular for agricultural purposes. At the same time, Pakistan has great potential for the supply of agricultural products and livestock for the Russian market. CE, TDAP stated that TDAP will facilitate the Russian buyers. He further said that the locus of international trade is shifting away from the western countries. Pakistan is also following the global trade scenario and diversifying its global trade. He pointed out that Pakistan’s share in existing imports of Russia is very low. Cotton fabric which we export to Russia is only US $50 million, while Russia’s world imports of this item is US $2.6 billion, similar is the case with other products. He said that there is huge potential to penetrate in the Russian markets. The objective of his visit is to increase the trade relations and to increase trade volumes from some million dollars to billions of dollar.
Mr. FAROOQ AFZAL, expressing his views said that we have to activate the activities of both the Business Councils of Russia and Pakistan, and the Executives of Business Councils have to meet every six months either in Pakistan or in Russia. He further said that it is necessary to have frequent exchange of trade delegations of Chamber of Commerce & Industry of both the countries.
Both the sides agreed to continue dialogue, contacts in order to develop the relations and strive for the rapid exchange of information in the interest to business development programs between the two countries.
Lastly Chief Executive TDAP along with Pakistan Ambassador to Russian Federation Mr. Qazi M. Khalilullah, Deputy Head of Mission of Pakistan to Russia Mr. Ata Shahid, Chairman Pak Russia Business Council FPCCI Mr. Farooq Afzal, President PFVA Mr. Waheed Ahmed, Dr Shahid Hassan, Mr. Ahtesham and Mr. Khurram Aslam had meeting with Mr. Denis Muntrov Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia in his office. The Russian minister was very keen and was willing to take practical steps for enhancing bilateral trade between two countries. The trade Minister accepted the invitation of CE TDAP to visit Pakistan and assured to visit in September or October this year. On another issue highlighted by CE TDAP about visa issue, the minister trade replied that in future visa for Pakistani business men will be facilitated and steps will be taken to issue one year multiple visas.
Source: Business Recorder
