ISTANBUL — In a major move to translate deep-rooted fraternal ties into a dynamic commercial alliance, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar led a high-level Pakistani delegation at the Pakistan-Türkiye Business Conference in Istanbul.
The conference, heavily facilitated by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), brought together top cabinet ministers, military leadership, and premier Turkish industrial conglomerates to aggressively pursue a mutually agreed bilateral trade target of $5 billion.
Red Carpet Assurances and Strategic Sectors
Addressing the Turkish business leadership, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif underscored the historical solidarity between the two nations, declaring them “two hearts with one soul.” To turn this goodwill into commercial success, the PM guaranteed a seamless “red carpet” experience for all Turkish investors, highlighting Pakistan’s improving macroeconomic indicators.
The high-level B2B and B2G dialogues focused on massive investment rollouts across several critical priority sectors:
- Energy, Mining & Minerals: Strategic exploration ventures and clean energy infrastructure development.
- Maritime, Logistics & Infrastructure: Port modernization projects and scaling regional connectivity frameworks.
- The Pak-Turkiye Digital Corridor: A forward-looking blueprint to collaborate on 5G deployment, telecom equipment manufacturing, and cross-border digital data flows.
SIFC’s Sovereign One-Window Guarantee
A central pillar of the bilateral engagements was the institutional backup provided by the SIFC. The delegation pitched the civil-military council as the ultimate administrative solution for foreign capital, emphasizing its capability to cut through red tape and offer predictable, transparent policies.
The Turkish business leadership—including chiefs from Calik Holding, Albayrak Group, and Turkcell—lauded Pakistan’s recent regulatory reforms and expressed immediate interest in expanding their local industrial footprint. SIFC remains positioned as the primary coordinator to streamline these upcoming inflows, ensuring a highly efficient, secure, and business-friendly environment for Turkish enterprises on Pakistani soil.
