The British High Commissioner Mr. Philip Barton visited Punjab Board of Investment & Trade Office.

Thursday, February 13, 2014
The British High Commissioner Mr. Philip Barton visited Punjab Board of Investment & Trade Office.
   
Date: February 04, 2014
Venue: Punjab Board of Investment & Trade GOR-I, Lahore
Time: 12:30 PM
 
He was accompanied by Deputy Political Counsellor, Mr. Jasper Thornton, Trade & Investment Officer Mr. Waqarullah and Deputy Director UK Trade & Investment Mr. Arshad Rauf.
 
The delegation was welcomed by the Director Generals and Directors at PBIT.  Dr. Ali Naveed Pirzada welcomed the High Commissioner and gave a presentation about the workings of PBIT and its recent achievements. The High Commissioner then proceeded to share his views about Pakistan, and specifically the province of Punjab and the desire of the British Government to strengthen the trade relations between the two countries. Both sides agreed that an improvement in trade relations was much required and in the mutual interest of both countries. As a step towards this, it was proposed that PBIT and UKTI should develop a partnership and a platform to share and develop a common knowledge base and to encourage the exchange of trade and business related information and to actively facilitate B2B linkages between interested parties. The High Commissioner fully endorsed this initiative and promised to actively patronize and support the development of a PAK-UK desk in PBIT.
 
H.E. Mr. Philip Barton felt that Pakistan was suffering from adverse media coverage and strongly suggested that image building of Pakistan was of key importance and it would help in bringing in more investment to the country.
 
The High Commissioner enjoyed a pleasant walk from the PBIT office to the Punjab Civil Officers Mess for lunch where he was introduced to prominent businessmen of Lahore like Mr.Pir Saad Ahsanuddin Executive Director of Republic Engineering Corporation, Mr. Azfar Hassan, CEO Matrix Sourcing and Mr.Shehryar Buksh Director Buksh Group and Mr.Ali Agha Director Projects, Allied Engineering.
 
The lunch ended with the High Commissioner expressing his gratitude to the management of PBIT for a very informative and positive meeting and an open exchange of views. He expressed a keen desire to develop a strong working relationship with PBIT in the future.