Shaukat Hayat Cheema, the Minister of Trade and Investments of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Moscow, met with the administration of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) in Minsk to discuss priority areas of cooperation that could facilitate Belarus’ exchange trade with Pakistan and other South Asian countries. In particular, the parties intend to establish cooperation in the field of logistics. It will help cut transportation costs and thus make Belarusian products listed on BUCE more attractive price-wise to Pakistani buyers.

“We maintain close contacts with shipping and logistics companies specializing in delivery of goods from Russia to Pakistan and vice versa. As a rule, it is multimodal transportation, which involves sea, rail and road transport. However, not long ago a new land route through Afghanistan was launched, and I think that Belarusian exporters operating on BUCE could benefit from it as well. After all, logistics has a tremendous influence on the final price of the goods. It is therefore quite possible that the emergence of a more convenient way to deliver products purchased on BUCE will not only boost Pakistani-Belarusian exchange trade, but also entice companies from the rest of South Asia,” Shaukat Hayat Cheema noted.

During the talks, promising goods of the Belarusian and Pakistani make that could be traded on BUCE were also identified. For example, Pakistan is interested in importing sawn timber, milk powder, sugar, and vegetable oils, while Belarus is willing to buy rice, cereals, yarn and non-ferrous metals.

Furthermore, according to Irina Narkevich, BUCE Vice Chairperson, the use of the exchange mechanism will simplify the entry of Pakistani companies into the Belarusian market by providing direct access to potential business partners.

“The essence of the exchange is to create favorable conditions for trading, which implies a wide range of goods, high concentration of supply and demand, and supervision over the execution of exchange contracts. All this is available to every Pakistani company that decides to do business on our electronic marketplace. Yet, if we want the exchange mechanism to work efficiently, we need scale and a massive user base. That is I suggest that we focus our joint efforts on increasing the number of Pakistani registered on BUCE. This should be our number one goal, and by achieving it we will serve mutual interests of our countries,” Irina Narkevich emphasized.