Pakistan signs PTA with Mauritius
Governments of Pakistan and Mauritius on Friday signed a number of trade deals which included the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) – an agreement on avoidance of double taxation – which have a great potential for enhancing their bilateral trade.
These agreements were signed during discussions held at the Mauritius Board of Investment, said a statement issued by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).
TDAP Chief Executive S M Muneer, along with the high powered trade delegation from Pakistan, visited the Mauritius Board of Investment (BOI).
Welcoming the delegation, BOI Managing Director Ken Poonoosamy thanked the TDAP chief executive for bringing a diverse high powered trade delegation to Mauritius.
Informing the delegation, the MD stated that the Mauritius BOI along with the Enterprise Mauritius (which is the national agency responsible for export development and promotion) has planned a hectic 2-day B2B session for all the trade delegates and hoped that their efforts at matchmaking the two private sectors from Pakistan and Mauritius would bear fruit.
It was stated that the reason for doing this B2B session in the BOI offices was to give a flavour to the Pakistani delegation of what Mauritius has to offer to the businesspersons form Pakistan.
It was also briefed to the delegation that Mauritius offers a very easy and friendly trading regime offering possibilities of Joint ventures as well as easy investment possibilities.
With preferential access to almost 26 percent of the global population through PTA’s, the BOI of Mauritius as well as the Enterprise Mauritius can facilitate in building and strengthening the trade relationships between the two brotherly countries.
The BOI managing director stated that they felt honoured by visit of this trade delegation and hoped that today’s B2B session would help in facilitating trade and investment between Pakistan and Mauritius.
Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Raju Jaddoo also welcomed the trade delegation from Pakistan.
He informed that Services sector contributed to more than 60 percent of the national GDP of $9200 in 2013.
With FDI of more than $2 billion per annum in various diverse sectors, Mauritius offers a large potential for trade and investment for Pakistani businessmen in the services and good sectors, he said.
Jaddoo also briefed the participants of the meeting about the Mauritius Deep Ocean Water Application (DOWA) project whereby the Mauritius government, in order to generate clean energy and protect the environment Sea Water Air Conditioning (SWAC) System in Mauritius, has an innovative low-carbon technology planned that lowers building cooling costs using cold ocean water.
This project consists of the construction and operation of a ground-breaking system that pumps cold water from the Indian Ocean and uses it for air conditioning purposes in buildings located in the heart of Port Louis and other nearby locations.
Thanking the Mauritius BOI managing director and Raju Jaddoo, TDAP Chief Executive S M Muneer briefed the delegates about the visit of the President of Mauritius to Pakistan in April 2016.
It was informed that this delegation’s visit is the result of the Mauritius’ president visit and it is hoped that the delegates would have a good B2B session during the visit.
Muneer also agreed with the view of the secretary general of the Mauritius Chamber that despite the existence of a large number of business facilitation instruments between Pakistan and Mauritius, the potential of bilateral trade has always been under-utilised.
He briefed that these PTA and other instruments are proof of the friendship and trust that both countries have in each other.
He stated that Pakistan is a developing economy and seeks regional integration through economic cooperation.
The participants were informed that Pakistan believes that the Mauritian economy has a lot of useful lessons for Pakistan and through joint ventures and investments in each other’s countries the scope of progress can be further enhanced.
Both Mauritius and Pakistan enjoy geo-strategic locations which allow these two countries, access to immense developmental opportunities.
Pakistan’s banking sector has already made its presence felt in the financial sector of Mauritius and the two countries are now poised to cooperate more closely in areas of health and education as well.
Muneer reiterated that despite all the goodwill and friendship that has existed between the two nations, there has not been much headway in terms of trade enhancement.
There is a dire need for the actualisation of the true potential of the PTA which offers trade concessions to 130 Pakistani items and 102 Mauritian items.
The absence of direct air linkages between Pakistan and Mauritius are also an added impediment in the path to increased economic exchange between the two nations.
With this trade delegation, it is expected that the trade and commercial relationship between Pakistan and Mauritius businesspersons would be enhanced and the potential of bilateral trade would be maximized, the TDAP chief executive concluded.
He thanked the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Enterprise Mauritius as well the BOI of Mauritius in their endeavors to this cause.
