Dawood, the Advisor to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Commerce and Trade has described Africa as a shining continent.
Dawood gave the description when he received West African delegates from Nigerian, Cameroon, the Republic of Benin, and Togo at the ongoing Pakistani Engineering and Healthcare Show.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event is part of the agenda of the Pakistani government’s `look Africa policy’ which is designed to engage the African market.
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The engineering and healthcare show is scheduled to hold from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27 in Lahore, the capital of Punjab in Pakistan with 330 delegates from Africa and Central Asia participating.
Mr Dawood said Africa that was seen as the `Dark Continent’ has now become the `Shinning Continent’ in the world with great potentials in various areas.
He added that it had become important for Africa and Pakistan to hold hands as developing countries to work closely to greater heights.
“This is the reason why the government of Pakistan saw the need to look towards Africa which is a big market.
“The African continent is rising and we have seen the beauty of the continent, and I am glad that the world has recognised Africa,’’ he said.
Responding, Mr Ahmed Yakasai, the Managing Director/CEO of Pharmaplus, who led the West African delegation, commended the government of Pakistan for organising the event.
According to him, the event is an avenue to connect and to encourage business to thrive between the two continent.
He added that the West African delegation was excited to be at the show and “is ready to do business and also to sign MoUs with some of the companies at the event”.
Some delegates who presented their concerns, said they were experiencing challenges in the area of doing easy business due to unfavourable polices of government.
He said that the process of doing business would ease once the issues of concern were addressed.
The highlight of the meeting was the recognition of some delegates who have been in long-standing relations with the Pakistani government. (NAN)
