KARACHI – Indonesian Consul General to Pakistan Hadi Santoso has said that Indonesia eyeing to strengthen bilateral ties with Pakistan in diverse fields and visa policy was made softened for Pakistanis.
Speaking on the occasion of inauguration of Pakistan-Indonesia Business Forum (PIBF) at Indonesian Consulate here on Friday, he said that the business forum had been formed in order to promote cultural, education, tourism and science and technology besides strengthening bilateral trade ties between the two countries. He said that his government eyeing on promotion of tourism and trade and that’s why visa policy for Pakistanis had been softened.
He said that his consulate had issued 20 percent more visas as compared to last year and about 10 percent more visas would be issued this year. He said that under the policy Indonesian Airlines Garuda was also considering to start flights from Pakistan.
He said that the main purpose of the PIBF was not only to strengthen bilateral trade ties but to boost cultural, educational, tourism, science and technology as well. He expressed his dismay over the volume of bilateral trade ties between Pakistan and Indonesia as it stands at $2.23 billion against a potential of several billion dollars.
He pointed out that out of $2.2 billion, 93 per cent of share was in favour of Indonesia. He advised the Pakistani businessmen to fully exploit the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and export more to Indonesia in order to bridge the wide gap between the two countries’ trade volume. He said that Pakistani exporters could also exploit Indonesia’s big market of Halal meat.
He said that under the plan of strengthening bilateral relations the Karachi University had offered 10 scholarships to the Indonesian students while Indonesian government too offered eight scholarships to Pakistani students.
The PIBF President Shamoon Zaki said that Pakistan-Indonesia relationship was particularly special and founded on religious and cultural outlook. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country in terms population; whereas Pakistan is the World’s second largest Muslim country, he said.
“Indonesia and Pakistan had great potential to improve bilateral cooperation in multiple fields and businessman of both countries should interact frequently for promotion of two way trade”, he said.
Pakistan is aiming to start negotiation on a free trade agreement (FTA) with Indonesia sometimes this year, to expend on the current preferential trade agreement (PTA), which began in 2013.
