Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday urged the world to develop a \u201cfresh look\u201d towards Pakistan and move away from its stereotypical image.
\n\u201cAs a young political leader, I strongly feel that the world needs to have a fresh look at Pakistan, away from its stereotypical image,\u201d Bilawal told The Strait Times before his maiden trip to Singapore.
\nPakistan\u2019s top diplomat told the Singapore-based publication that there are \u201cmany opportunities in Pakistan awaiting the world\u201d. However, he said that the first step for making use of those opportunities is to lift the travel advisories against Pakistan.
\n\u201cI strongly feel that the world needs to look at us more objectively, as a promising emerging market,\u201d said the Bilawal. He highlighted Pakistan\u2019s young population and the country\u2019s fastest-growing middle class.
\nOne of the industries that were mentioned by the foreign minister was the Pakistani e-commerce market. He told the publication that based on data from German research firm Statista, the country\u2019s e-commerce market is projected to generate US$7.67 billion in revenue in 2022.
\nAlong with this, he highlighted that Pakistan has multiple freelancers who are providing services in IT, telecom, e-commerce, data analytics, financial services, music, and health.
\n\u201cSingapore and other ASEAN countries outsource many IT-related activities and financial services and can benefit immensely from our young talent.\u201d
\nOn the visit, Pakistan\u2019s top diplomat stressed that ties with ASEAN countries are a priority for Islamabad. He added that Islamabad is seeking to upgrade its partnership with the regional bloc into a full dialogue partnership.
\n\u201cSome recent initiatives of ASEAN are of great interest to Pakistan which we believe are bound to unlock immense trade and investment opportunities for emerging economies including Pakistan. We believe our start-up and fintech ecosystem can contribute a great deal by connecting with South-east Asia,\u201d said Bilawal.
\nThe foreign minister told the Singapore publication that in the context of ASEAN, Pakistan places great importance on its relations with Singapore.
\nHe highlighted that Pakistan was among the first countries to recognise Singapore after independence, and how the Pakistani expatriates have contributed to the country\u2019s development in its early years.
\nBilawal pointed out how the two nations have exchanged high-level visits in the past, including former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew\u2019s visits to Pakistan in 1988 and 1992, and former premier Benazir Bhutto\u2019s visit in 1995.
\n\u201cOver time, we lost the momentum in our bilateral relations,\u201d said Bilawal, adding that he was coming to Singapore \u201cto revive that momentum and intensify our bilateral exchanges. Pakistan is keen to strengthen this relationship in all dimensions\u201d.
\nMeeting with President Halimah
\nDuring his visit, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on President Halimah Yacob today.
\n“In the meeting, enhanced engagement and mutually beneficial cooperation were discussed while the foreign minister shared Pakistan’s desire to intensify cooperation with ASEAN,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
\nEarlier, Singaporean FM Dr Vivian Balakrishnan hosted Bilawal Bhutto over breakfast where matters of mutual interest were discussed between the two leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday urged the world to develop a \u201cfresh look\u201d towards Pakistan and move away from its stereotypical image. \u201cAs a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3480,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}