F.P. Report
KARACHI: A high level delegation from the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which is currently on a visit to Mauritius, met President of Mauritius Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim during their visit to the State House situated in Moka District of Mauritius where they briefed the President and gave suggestions on how to deal with some major hurdles hindering smooth trade between the two countries.
Exchanging views with President Mauritius, KCCI’s delegation, which was being led by Vice President KCCI Rehan Hanif, expressed deep concerns over the ban imposed by the Mauritian government on the imports of meat from Pakistan. They said that in this regard, officers of Mauritian Health Department are scheduled to visit Pakistan since last two years to inspect the health and hygiene conditions of Pakistani meat prior to lifting ban on meat imports but they have not visited the country so far and their visit is postponed every time they intend to visit Pakistan because of minor issues.
They requested the Mauritian President to send the Mauritian Health Officers to Pakistan urgently so that the ban imposed on meat imports could immediately be lifted which would certainly help in improving the meager trade volume between the two countries. Referring to the last visit of Mauritian President to Pakistan, KCCI’s delegation recalled that the Mauritian President during the said visit to Pakistan assured to provide space for organizing Pakistan’s Single Country Exhibition in Mauritius. In this regard, they requested the President to instruct the concerned officials to make arrangements so that the Karachi Chamber could hold Single Country Exhibition which would certainly improve trade volume and bring the business communities of both countries more close to each other.
They further expressed concerns over limited period visas being issued to visitors from Pakistan for up to seven days only which has to be increased to at least one month in order to encourage business-to-business and people-to-people interaction between the two countries which would certainly yield positive results.
After being briefed about the potential of Mauritius, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry delegation was fairly convinced that the island was a gateway to Africa and it has the potential to become Dubai of Africa in the days to come. Mauritius can be used by the Pakistani business community to effectively penetrate into the African region where Pakistan’s trade was almost non-existent.
