Philippines Embassy Charge d’Affairs Maria Agnes M. Cervantes says her country has keen interest in strengthening trade and economic ties with Pakistan and wants to enhance mutual trade volume to the maximum level.
LAHORE; (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Oct 21st, 2022) Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry President Kashif Anwar and Vice President on Friday met Charge d’Affairs of Philippines Maria Agnes M. Cervantes and Director General Intellectual Property Rights (IPO) Shazia Adnan in two separate meetings and have fruitful discussions. Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt President Pakistan Philippines Business Forum Engineer Haseeb Khan and LCCI Executive Committee Members were also present on the occasion.
Charge d’Affairs of the Embassy of Philippines Maria Agnes M. Cervantes said that her country has keen interest in strengthening trade and economic ties with Pakistan and wants to enhance mutual trade volume to the maximum level.
She urged the business community of Pakistan to come forward and explore the untapped international trade markets of Philippines. She said that there is a huge potential to increase the volume of mutual trade. She said both the countries are enjoying cordial trade relations which should be enhanced. She added that promotion of cultural relations between Pakistan and the Philippines will also strengthen bilateral economic and trade relations. She said that cultural, diplomatic, economic and trade ties have been established between the two countries in many potential sectors, which have wider possibilities of further strengthening bilateral relations in the future, she said.
LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that according to the World Bank data 2021, Philippines has GDP in excess of 390 billion dollars. We are really impressed by the excellent economic performance registered by Philippines during 2021 with growth rate of 5.7%. He said that Pakistan and Philippines have very cordial diplomatic relations and both the countries have been steady trading partners as well. However, the bilateral trade figures hardly reflect these ties.
He said that as per trade data sought from State Bank, Pakistan, I am glad to quote that our exports to Philippines increased from 114 million Dollars in 2020-21 to 155 million dollars in 2021-22 while our imports surged from 29 million dollars to 35 million dollars in the same period. This essentially means that our trade volume has increased from around 143 million dollars to 190 million dollars during that period. You will agree with me that we need to make joint efforts to increase bilateral trade to at least 1 billion dollars.
Kashif Anwar said that the biggest potential sector for Pakistan to enhance exports to Philippines is Rice as the President of the Philippines removed restriction on the import of rice. The other potential items are processed food items and pharmaceuticals.
He mentioned that Tourism is one of the priority sectors of the Government due to its tremendous potential. The landscape of Pakistan has everything; one can wish to see –mountains, valleys, rivers, seaside, deserts, open fields etc. Pakistan offers a wide spectrum of tourism ranging from religious to historical places and ancient civilizations to modern architecture.
“We seek the support from Philippines - being an important member of ASEAN for getting Pakistan Full-Dialogue partnership with ASEAN. We believe that there are great prospects of increasing trade between Pakistan and Philippines through diversification of products”, LCCI President added.
LCCI Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt said that we can also discuss the possibilities for undertaking joint venture projects in Pakistan with the help of Philippines which is primarily considered a newly industrialized country. He said that both the countries should work on knowledge sharing and technology transfer in the fields of construction, IT, teaching/education and hospitality etc.
LCCI office-bearers said it is heartening to know that Philippines has made great progress as far as Halal Certification is concerned. We would certainly like you to play a role in apprising the investors in Philippines about the tremendous potential of Halal food market in Pakistan and encourage them to develop close liaison with the business community of Pakistan that is the natural base for Halal products.
In a separate meeting, DG IPO Shazia Adnan said that the trademarks are going to be online soon while the copyright and patents will also be available online.
To a question, she said that according to the legal department of IPO, service of company and trademark search cannot be provided free of cost but a suggestion in this regard has been sent to the PM office.
She said that financial and HR rules have been changed to bring effectiveness and efficiency. She said that online hearing has also been started.
DG IPO said that the services of department are going to be globalized through the commercial sections of Pakistan’s embassies abroad. “We have forwarded request for four tribunals. Multan’s tribunal office has been formulated while the others are in process. She said that the amendments haven brought in the patent and copyright laws and sought LCCI suggestions in this regard. She said that industrial design rules have also been approved. She said that IPO has also started work on enforcement rules and suggestions of Lahore Chamber are required. IPO has also started messaging service for the applicants.
LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that Lahore Chamber has been proposing the government since long to increase online services in different government departments dealing with private sector so that business community may save their time and effort while seeking information, submitting applications/documents or making payments from e-banking or debit cards etc.
He appreciated that IPO-Pakistan has already commenced online filing to facilitate the applicants. However, our members have to visit IPO office personally to make the necessary search for selecting a company name while getting their trademark registered. It is time consuming and causes hassle. We would like to know if it is possible for IPO to start the online facility of E-search and E-status.
LCCI Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt was of the view that due to lack of awareness, there is a little focus on availing the protection from IPO on research works related to innovation and technology. He said that IPO must play leading role to encourage such culture in Pakistan.
