Nigeria, Pakistan to review agreements in trade

Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Dauda Danladi, on Tuesday said the resuscitated Nigeria-Pakistan Joint Commission would review moribund agreements in three key economic sectors.

Danladi, who made this known when he addressed newsmen in Abuja, said the sectors include agriculture, textile and pharmaceutical.

He said the joint ministerial committee meeting of the commission would hold a two-day meeting in Abuja next week.

The envoy said a high-level Pakistani delegation led by the Minister of Petroleum would be in Abuja from April 7.

According to him, the meeting is the first of its kind after 30 years of the commissions’ establishment.

“In agriculture, we are talking about fertiliser production, agricultural implements like simple tractors and simple farm implements where Pakistan has comparative advantage over us.

“We are also going to look at seedlings and rice processing mills because Pakistan is the fourth largest exporter of rice in the world,” he said.

On textile development, Danladi said Pakistan was the fourth largest exporter of textile in the world and Nigeria had 1,200 textile companies that were moribund.

“We want to see how we can partner and collaborate with textile industrialists in Nigeria to resuscitate some of the textile industries,” he said.

The envoy said it was unacceptable for Nigeria to spend six billion dollars on the importation of textiles in 2012 and 10 billion dollars on the importation of rice in 2011.

On pharmaceuticals, he noted that the country was spending huge sums on importation, and stressed the need to develop the local capacity to produce drugs.

He said the joint commission would also consider agreements on education and scientific cooperation.

He said, “Today, Pakistan is able to meet its defence requirements, it is producing armoured tanks and personnel carriers and they have just launched the GF-17 aircrafts.”

Danladi told newsmen that to demonstrate the cordial relations of both countries, the President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, would visit Nigeria this month.

“This is first time in 30 years that a president of Pakistan is visiting Nigeria,” he said.