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Economic Cooperation Between Pakistan and Japan
Economic cooperation between Pakistan and Japan has always been important and significant – primarily, in the form of bilateral trade; foreign direct investment; and, assistance for economic development in a wide range of areas including health, education and technology transfer.
Pakistan remained one of the major trading partners of Japan in the early years with a large share in import of textile products. However, later this export basket got diversified by inclusion of agricultural and food products; surgical and beauty instruments; leather and sports goods; and, different minerals and metal ores.
Japan has been a major contributor to Pakistan’s need of iron and steel, in addition to the largest shareholder in Pakistan’s automotive sector. Apart from automobile manufacturers, there are more than 80 Japanese companies with their presence in Pakistan in sectors including energy, steel, textiles, food and pharmaceuticals.
Another rapidly growing area of cooperation between Pakistan and Japan is Information Technology (IT) where Pakistan is offering both, trained professionals as well as services to Japanese industries.
There are two high level arrangements for government-to-government (G2G) economic cooperation between Pakistan and Japan – Pakistan Japan High Level Economic Policy Dialogue and Pakistan Japan Joint Business Dialogue; in addition, there is a Monitoring Committee with representation by major ministries from both countries and the two embassies working at functional level to facilitate Pakistani and Japanese companies and extending support in resolving their issues.