KARACHI – Ambassador of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Pakistan, Hamad Obaid Alzaabi on Friday said that UAE Embassy will open a visa centre in Karachi, which will become operational in the first week of September 2019 and will have facilities.
Another visa centre will also become functional in Islamabad in the first week of October 2019, UAE diplomat informed during his meeting with members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), here at the Chamber, said a KCCI press release.
“Everything will be here including the medical insurance, check-ups and the contracts et cetera to facilitate visa issuance from the visa centre in Karachi, which will be the biggest visa centre of Asia while the entire team for this Visa Center at Khayaban-e-Shamsheer in Defence Housing Authority area of Karachi will come from UAE,” he said.
He said that UAE was offering Silver Investment Visa for 5 years and Golden Investment Visa for 10 years, which were being issued under specific criteria and depended on the size of a company and also the amount being invested.
Deputy Consul General of UAE to Karachi, Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi accompanied the Ambassador. Chairman Businessmen Group in KCCI and former president KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, KCCI President Junaid Esmail Makda, Senior Vice President Khurram Shahzad, Vice President Asif Sheikh Javaid and the Managing Committee members were also present.
Expressing gratitude to KCCI for extending warm hospitality on his visit to KCCI, UAE Ambassador said he had visited many areas of Pakistan including Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore, Peshawar, South Waziristan and Quetta, but in Karachi social life, atmosphere, culture and people were different from those of other cities including Islamabad.
UAE envoy stated that relations between Pakistan and UAE had always been very strong and historical but there was a need to explore new potential avenues for promotion of trade and investment.
The governments of the UAE and Pakistan were working very hard to narrow the gap and find opportunities, chances and potential for trade and investment, he said adding, “We are trying to find new areas of cooperation where we could work together and also examine the challenging areas so that these could be addressed by the authorities in UAE. Inshallah, we will put our hands together to move forward in the future.”
He stressed the need for having a legal framework between UAE and Pakistan to encourage and save investments made either in Pakistan or in UAE.
Supporting to President KCCI’s suggestion of signing a memorandum of understanding between KCCI and UAE Chamber, he said it was really important so that a framework could be defined because when there were a gap and no official visits, the business communities and Chambers of Commerce simply would have no idea about the business potential in Pakistan and UAE.
“Any suggestion from Karachi Chamber, which pertains to signing MoUs, agreements, workshops, conferences and seminars will certainly be taken into consideration,” he assured.
