[dropcap]P[/dropcap]akistan and Ukraine have great potential and those potentials must be utilized by the business community of both the countries. It will not only enable us to strengthen the trade ties and provide window of unlimited opportunities between the business entities of both the countries. Since Pakistan’s export is declining for the couple of years and there is great burden on balance of payment, therefore there is a dire need to explore new markets and Ukraine could be a good potential market.
Number of Ukrainian companies are interested in building power plants, pipelines, bridges and railways in Pakistan. Both countries wish to expand and deepen mutually beneficial relations perspectives , there is a need for strengthening of political dialogue, boosting legal framework, creating auspicious conditions for functioning of business organizations at the markets of both countries. Many Pakistanis students acquiring education and technical skills from Ukrainian universities and more number of students increasing. There is need to enhance further cooperation between Pakistani and Ukrainian universities to exchange knowledge, expertise, skills and technical edge.
Pakistani rice and mango is very popular in Ukraine. In Ukraine 20,000 deposits of 200 different kinds of minerals have been found. Ukraine produced about 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and has about 1 trillion cubic meters of discovered natural gas reserves. Ukraine is the 5th biggest market of IT outsources services and the market volume exceeds US$1 billion. Ukraine has advance space technology and Pakistani universities and students can benefit from it.
There is a great potential to enhance bilateral economic relations between Pakistan and Ukraine especially in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) perspectives. Pakistan needs Ukrainian investment in sectors like energy and education.
Ukraine is a Eastern European state, bordering with Russia to the east, northeast, and south, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Hungry and Slovakia to the west. Ukraine has 603,628 sq km and is the largest European country. Its population is about 42.5 million. Ukraine is a global breadbasket because of its extensive fertile farmlands and is one of the world’s largest grain exporters.
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ECONOMY OF UKRAINE
After Russia, Ukrainian Republic was the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about one four time of the output of the next running republic. Its fertile black soil produced more than one fourth agriculture of Soviet Union.
To support it economy IMF provided it US$17.5 billion package, of which it received four disbursements most recently one in April, 2017.
Major Feature of Ukraine:
- GDP (PPP): $353 billion
- GDP(official Exchange rate) $93.26 billion
- GDP real growth rate: 2.31%
- GDP per capita (PPP): $8,300
GDP composition by sector of origin:
- Agriculture 14.4%
- Industry: 26.3 %
- Services: 53.3 %
Agriculture products:
Grain, Sugar beets, vegetables
Industrial products:
- Electric power, ferrous and non ferrous metals.
- Exports: $33.97 billion
- Imports $38.94 billion
Export commodities:
Chemicals, ferrous and non ferrous metals, fuel and petroleum products, chemicals
Export Partners:
- Russia 12.7%, Turkey 7.5%, China 6.3%, Egypt 5.5%
Import partners:
- Russia 20%, Germany 10.41%, China 10.1%, Belarus 6.7%
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]DR SYED MEHBOOB
Senior Researcher & Editor Ambassador [/box]