ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Minister for Commerce & Textile Muhammad Pervaiz Malik is on official visit to United Kingdom from April 16-18, 2018 to attend Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2018) and Commonwealth Forum.
The minister will also hold meeting with the UK Minister for Trade Policy Greg Hands, and will also attend meeting on Fashion and Industry insight.
The commerce minister will also participate in Asia Leaders Round Table Conference (Can Asia Keep Growing) on April 18, 2018.
The Commerce Minister will depart for Pakistan on April 19, 2018.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 Countries spanning Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. Pakistan is one of the founding members of the modern commonwealth formed on April 26, 1949.
The Commonwealth is home to 2.4 billion people and includes both advanced economies and developing Countries. It has around 30 percent of the World’s population and 20 percent of the World’s landmass.
Every two years the leaders Commonwealth nations gather for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). This intergovernmental summit is an opportunity for Heads to address shared challenges and set new priorities. Priority areas of work are agreed at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings.
Pakistan-Commonwealth bilateral trade amounted to US$ 10.61 billion in 2016 with Pakistan exports of US$ 4.31 billion and imports of US$ 6.3 billion. Pakistan main exports to commonwealth are in textiles products which constitute 61% of total exports.
UK is the prime destination for Pakistan’s textile exports. Other significant exports are in rice, mineral products including cement, gypsum, and petroleum oil and of leather products. Pakistan’s primary imports from commonwealth nations are in agriculture products including colza seeds from Canada, tea from Kenya, vegetables from India, Australia and Canada and palm oil from Malaysia.
Agriculture imports constitute 34 percent of total imports from commonwealth. Other significant imports are in chemicals, coal, petroleum oils, raw cotton and iron and steel.
The main export partner for Pakistan in commonwealth is UK which accounts 34% of Pakistan’s total exports followed by Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Australia. Pakistan’s main import partner is India constituting 26.1 percent of total imports followed by Malaysia, Canada, UK and Singapore.
