Poland has shown interest in enhancing bilateral trade with Pakistan. According to Poland Ambassador to Pakistan Piotr A Opalinski, Pakistan and Poland have good potential to trade many goods with each other as bilateral trade volume between Poland and Pakistan had increased to over half a billion euros. The envoy said Poland was located in central Europe and could become a hub for Pakistan’s exports to the European Union.
Direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan to start next year, strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations as well as people-to-people contacts between the two countries. Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan Ali Alizada said that investors in Azerbaijan are keen to invest in potential sectors of Pakistan, adding that Azerbaijan attached immense importance to improvement in trade, economic and cultural relations with Pakistan.
Pakistan’s IT companies continued to strengthen their niche in software consultancy services as they attracted over $100 million in receipts in first four months of the current financial year 2019-20. It showed growth of 14.7 percent as compared to same period last year. The overall growth in this field was seen due to the improvement in demand and acceptance of Pakistani companies.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2019, Pakistan has been ranked at a poor 116th place out of 140 countries in the freedom of press rankings. While the European countries are expectedly included in the top 10, countries like Jamaica, Costa Rica, and New Zealand are also rated highly. China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are all listed at the bottom.
Pakistan and the World Bank have signed five loan agreements of $787 million for development projects, majorly directed to uplifting Karachi. The World Bank will provide $652m for three development projects in Karachi to support urban mobility, urban management and service delivery, improve water and sewerage services, tourism and power sectors. Highest amount of $382m was inked for Karachi Mobility (Yellow Line) Project.
Pakistan has offered Qatar to provide security for the FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held by the Gulf state in 2022. President Arif Alvi made the offer and highlighted that there was a lot of scope in the field of defense exports and joint production ventures. According to him Pakistan’s armed forces had a vast experience in the field of security and professionalism, and could provide security for the Football World Cup 2022.
President Arif Alvi has offered to provide security for next FIFA World Cup 2022 being held in Qatar. In a meeting with Commander of Qatar Emiri Guard, Maj-Gen Hazzaa Bin Khalil, President Alvi stressed that Pakistan’s professional armed force has vast experience in domain of security. He also added that the two countries have great potential to include defence export and joint production ventures.
According to Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy Islamabad, Lisa K. Heller, the Trump administration will increase its support for educational opportunities and student exchange programs for Pakistani students of different backgrounds. The US embassy, in collaboration with Education USA, organized International Education Week (IEW) from November 18th to 22nd to encourage Pakistani youngsters to study in the US.
During a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) core committee in Islamabad, it was decided that Pakistan will raise the incident of the Holy Quran’s desecration in Norway with Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Deeming all such provocative activities as unacceptable, Prime Minister Imran Khan directed Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to to immediately contact OIC and inform it of the country’s reservations.
In a huge blow, PayPal has informed the government officials that Pakistan is not in its road map for the next three years citing inadequate business opportunities. Ministry of Information Technology’s delegation visited the PayPal headquarters last month in a bid to convince the higher-ups of the payment gateway as it would be highly beneficial for the local freelancers.