Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar held a meeting with Mr Yoichi Miyazawa, Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and investment here today. Mr Miyazawa welcome the Finance Minister in his Ministry stating that Pakistan and Japan enjoyed longstanding friendly relations which needed to be further improved.
Finance Minister congratulated Mr Miyazawa on Tokyo being selected to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and agreed that the potential for cooperation and collaboration between the two countries was far greater. He briefed Mr Miyazawa about the salient features of Pakistan's economic turnaround and stated that Pakistan wanted to expand trade and investment relations with Japan. He said that Pakistan was looking for special economic zones to be established by Japanese entrepreneurs in Pakistan.
Finance Minister also referred to the disadvantage faced by Pakistani textiles in Japan which faced stiffer tariffs as compared with similar products from competitor countries and argued that, given Pakistan's extraordinary current situation, Japan should consider some special concessions to Pakistan's textile products.
Mr Miyazawa stated that Japan fully understood Pakistan's challenges and informed that Toyota Group was considering further investments in Pakistan. He said that there was an increased interest in Pakistan amongst Japanese companies.
Both the leaders agreed that the next Joint Business Dialogue, which has been delayed for two years, will take place in Pakistan in May. Finance Minister extended an invitation to Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Investment to either visit Pakistan for the Joint Business Dialogue or at some mutually convenient time later in the year.
The meeting was also attended by Chairman, Board of Investment, Ambassador of Pakistan in Tokyo and other senior officials.
