Pakistan exchanges documents with Yemen on economic cooperation

Pakistan and Yemen on Wednesday signed documents aimed at increasing cooperation in sectors of economy, trade, investment, oil, gas, agriculture and technical education, said an official press release. According to the press release, the documents were signed at the 7th session of Pakistan-Yemen Joint Ministerial Commission held on January 7-8 in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad. The respective head of the delegates from both countries signed the documents during the two-day sessions of the Commissions meeting. During the meeting, matters pertaining to deepening cooperation in education, vocational training, health and population, agriculture, fisheries and infrastructure development also came under discussion. It was agreed that both sides would commence discussions on Preferential Trade Agreement and Free Trade Agreement with the objective of increasing bilateral trade volume, which at the most is even less than USD 150 million. Both sides agreed to establish Yemen Joint Business Council (JBC) and to convene its first meeting during the first quarter of 2014. A committee for exploring investment opportunities in both countries was constituted in the session, said the press release. An agreement for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Yemen was also discussed and is likely to be signed during the proposed visit of Yemeni Minister for Oil and Minerals to Pakistan in January. Yemen would also facilitate the import of Pakistani pharmaceutical products and resolve any difficulties in this regard through the forum of JBC. Pakistani officials assured of their cooperation to Yemeni delegation in areas of agriculture, plant protection, livestock and development of seeds, grains, vegetables and fruits that suits the Yemeni climate. Besides these decisions, progress on a number of pending Memorandum of Understandings, agreements and executive programmes was also reviewed and it was decided to speed up the pace of internal procedures required for signing bilateral documents, the press release added.