Islamabad: Pakistan will provide soft-term credit facilities to Sri Lanka to facilitate the export of cement and sugar plants, President Asif Ali Zardari
said on Monday.
Zardari made the remarks during a meeting in Karachi
with a Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation led by Speaker
Chamal Jayantha Rajapakse.
Pakistani entrepreneurs should invest in Sri Lanka and
its government must provide incentives, including repatriation
of investment, to attract investments from Pakistan, Zardari
said.
He also spoke of the need to enhance economic
cooperation, including the exchange of gem and stone-cutting
experts.
He added: "Pakistan can train police and intelligence
officers of Sri Lanka."
Zardari underlined the need to increase exports of Sri
Lankan tea to Pakistan and said bilateral trade should be in
the local currency.
Rajapakse said Sri Lanka fully supported Pakistan`s
efforts and role in the war on terror.
He appreciated Pakistan`s support to the Sri Lankan
Army for combating terrorism.
Sri Lanka is the first country with which Pakistan
signed a free trade agreement.
The pact helped double bilateral trade to 400 million
dollars and both countries have set a target to take trade to
two billion dollars by 2012.
PTI
