KARACHI: President Houston-Karachi Sister City Association (HKSCA) Muhammad Saeed Sheikh has informed that Mayor of Houston was likely to bring a trade delegation to Karachi in the month of September 2022 which will be holding various meetings with government officials, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry and other trade bodies in the city.
“Keeping in view the high profiles of delegates and the nature of their businesses, I am sure this visit will certainly prove beneficial for your businesses”, he added while exchanging views at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
President KCCI Muhammad Idrees, Senior Vice President KCCI Abdul Rehman Naqi, Vice President Qazi Zahid Hussain, Chairman Diplomatic Missions & Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Zia ul Arfeen, Chairman Fairs, Exhibitions & Trade Delegation Azeem Ahmed Alvi, Former President KCCI Majyd Aziz and KCCI Managing Committee Members attended the meeting.
Muhammad Saeed further said that HKSCA was also looking forward to facilitating signing of Memorandum of Understanding or Memorandum of Cooperation between the Houston Port and Karachi Port Trust so that the business communities of the two cities could be provided numerous facilities including warehouses at the ports.
He stressed to make collective efforts to further strengthen the existing trade and investment ties between the business communities of Houston and Karachi by exploring new avenues of trade and investment cooperation, encouraging business-to-business & people-to-people interactions along with organizing trade promotional activities including trade delegations’ visits and exhibitions in both the cities.
President HKSCA stated that the purpose of establishing HKSCA in 2009 was to improve connectivity by organizing meetings with numerous departments and trade bodies in Houston during the visit of delegations from Karachi along with offering humanitarian services and promoting cultural exchanges between the two cities. “HKSCA is a non-profit organization and all our services and facilitations are provided voluntarily. Except Karachi which is the 17th sister city of Houston, no other city exists in the entire South Asian region which has been approved as sister city”
Highlighting some of the humanitarian services provided to Karachi, he said “We recently undertook few more projects including a tree plantation project wherein 1,000 trees were being planted in Karachi while 10,000 trees will also be planted all over Pakistan. HKSCA has also installed RO Plants in North Nazimabad, Malir and Lyari.”
He also advised KCCI to improve ties and ensure proper follow-up of various initiatives with Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) which was the strongest trade body in the US as corporate offices of more than 500 companies were based in Houston. “Fortunately, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exists between GHP, KCCI and HKSCA which was inked in 2012 according to which activities of mutual interest will be carried out in the fields of exports-imports, investment climate, business climate and other commercially oriented activities. We need to improve connectivity between KCCI and GHP by effectively utilizing this important MoU.”
Responding to President KCCI’s intention of sending a delegation to Houston this year, Muhammad Saeed assured that KCCI’s delegation will be fully facilitated by organizing maximum number of required trade promotional activities and meetings.
Earlier, President KCCI Muhammad Idrees, while welcoming Saeed Sheikh, pointed out that since Karachi and Houston were declared sister cities, several delegations from Karachi Chamber visited Houston to explore more avenues of enhancing trade and investment ties with the business community of Houston. “The HKSA collaboration with KCCI has undoubtedly paved for improved ties between the business communities of the two cities”, he added while highly appreciating the hospitality and rigorous efforts made by HKSA to make KCCI’s delegations visits from time to time meaningful and result-oriented.
Inviting Houston’s business community to undertake joint ventures in Karachi, President KCCI stated that Karachi’s huge market offers lucrative trade and investment opportunities to foreign investors who can look into the possibility of collaborating in numerous sectors of economy particularly the blue economy, textiles, garments, petrochemicals, tourism, construction and also the IT sector wherein the business communities of both cities can join hands for establishing IT parks in Karachi. “Keeping in view Houston’s knowledge, experience and expertise in development of SMEs, we can collaborate to promote SMEs in Karachi in addition to paying special attention to the start-ups.”
While assuring KCCI’s full support and cooperation to facilitate trade delegations’ visit from Houston to Karachi, President KCCI informed that KCCI also intends to send a business delegation to Houston this year with an aim to further cement the existing ties between the business communities and explore more areas of trade and investment cooperation. He also invited Houston’s business community to participate in My Karachi Exhibition scheduled to be organized in the last week of March 2022 which would provide a perfect opportunity to showcase products and services in front of more than 1 million visitors.
