By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, Mar 01 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan and Sri Lanka have seen a substantial growth in bilateral trade since the signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but the true potential still remains untapped. Fatima Kamal, Pakistan’s Trade and Investment Attaché in Sri Lanka stated this to a query of WealthPK during a press conference at Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). The conference was held at RCCI on the occasion of Sri Lankan trade delegation’s visit. The delegation was led by Sri Lankan Trade Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardana. Fatima Kamal said the visits of trade delegations play a vital role in enhancing business opportunities in a country. “Internationally, Pakistan is emerging as a new business market. That’s why the Sri Lankan government and businessmen are interested in exploring new opportunities in Pakistan,” she said, adding that she was confident that Pak-Sri Lanka trade and business relations will boom in the near future. Dr Bandula in his address said that the existence of real opportunities is important to increase trade volume between the two countries. “The FTA between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was operationalised in 2005, but still, it is not producing desired results. An increasing interest of investment between the business communities of both countries exists. Pakistan can share its expertise in multiple trade and business fields like steel, sugar, plastic pharmaceutical, and poultry. Sri Lankan trade and business persons can collaborate with Pakistani experts in all these sectors,” he said. The Sri Lankan trade minister said his country’s exporters are keen to export trade goods e.g., coconut products, textile items, and electronic appliances, to the Pakistani market. “Sri Lanka keeps an extensive experience in hospitality and aquaculture sectors, which can be shared with Pakistan. Generous sharing of experience, services, trade, business and investment will help both the countries expand their trade and business net to other countries/regions as well,” he said. Tharaka Bala Surya, Sri Lankan Minister for Regional Cooperation, said on the occasion that currently Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s trade volume stands only at $500 million. “Trade volume between the two countries can be increased from millions to billions. So, it is important for both the countries to prepare a bilateral framework to promote more business and trade opportunities,” he said. He also assured the business communities of both countries of more subsidies and vowed to resolve multiple hurdle-bearing components from the FTA to make it more flexible. Special economic zones are developed in Sri Lanka for Pakistani investors. Pakistani investors and tech experts are welcomed in five Sri Lankan IT (information technology) parks for investment or services. Moreover, the Sri Lankan minister said that tourism and textile sectors have great scope in Pakistan and Sri Lanka which must get special focus. Irfan Thassim, founding member of Oceanpick (Pvt) LTD, represented Sri Lankan aquaculture experts’ panel in the business-to-business (B2B) meeting. While sharing views with WealthPK, he said Oceanpick is South Asia’s first-ever offshore fish farming company, and bears the award of “Best Aquaculture Certification”. Currently, it is the only offshore aquaculture finfish farm in Sri Lanka as well. He showed interest in developing aquaculture concerning shrimp farming in Pakistan along coastlines of Sindh and Balochistan provinces. He said the Sindh Delta is suitable to farm shrimps. Pakistani investors must also focus on sectors like aquaculture. Pakistani pharmaceutics company Bio-Labs also joined the B2B event and representatives from the company, Sundas Nazir and Ahsan Mumtaz, told WealthPK that Pakistani pharmaceutic products keep good scope in the Sri Lankan market. “Bio-Labs has introduced some new medicines to cure Covid-19. That’s why they want to introduce new batch of medicines in Sri Lankan healthcare market,” they said. At the end of the press conference, Nadeem Rauf, President of RCCI, thanked Sri Lankan delegation for the visit. “Pakistan and Sri Lanka have historical trade and business relations. This visit will strengthen bilateral trade and business between the two countries,” he said. Bilateral trade rose from $158 million to $508 million from 2005 to 2018. During the years 2020 and 2021, Pakistan exported multiple items to Sri Lanka worth $78.62 million and $57.36 million, respectively. The 7th session of the Pakistan and Sri Lankan Commerce Secretary Talks and the 12th Joint Economic Commission (JEC) session were held virtually during the year 2021. In both sessions, technical issues related to FTA were resolved to enhance trade ties between the two countries.