Industrialist and Chairman of FPCCI’s Pakistan – UAE Business Council, Diwan Fakhruddin, has commended the understanding between the two brotherly countries vis-à-vis mutual visa waiver for diplomatic and official passport holders. However, he recommended that the facility should be extended to genuine investors, entrepreneurs and industrialists of Pakistan.
According to a statement released on Monday, Fakhruddin appreciated Ishaq Dar, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister of Pakistan and H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Foreign Minister of UAE, for making the 12th meeting of Pakistan – UAE Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) possible after a gap of 13 years.
JMC discussed areas as diverse and comprehensive as trade, banking, culture, investment, aviation, railways, energy, food security, climate change, defence, healthcare, manpower, higher education and information technology, he added.
Last month, Pakistan and the UAE signed a visa exemption agreement for diplomatic and official passports.
He shared that the bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and UAE has clocked at $10.9 billion, and remittances are expected to surpass $7 billion in FY25.
Nonetheless, Fakhruddin was of the view that there is a tangible potential to double that volume in the next 5 years alone.
He informed that, at present, remittances from UAE are the second largest after Saudi Arabia; and, the government needs to provide incentives and facilitation to these remitting persons in Pakistan to encourage more remittances.
Fakhruddin maintained that UAE has emerged as the world leader in renewable and solar technologies – and Pakistan has much to gain from their technological infrastructure, ecosystem and path-breaking solutions.
He said that the government has taken the right decision to reduce the proposed GST on imported solar panels from 18% to 10%.
