A trade delegation from Pakistan, organised by the Pakistan-Romania Business Council (PRBC), has explored cooperation in digitalization, technology, agriculture, and dairy during a visit to Romania, meeting officials at the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (MEDAT) in Bucharest and touring the country’s largest milk-producing farm. The delegation was led by Atif Farooqi, Head of Delegation and Honorary Consul-Designate of Romania in Sindh.
At MEDAT, the delegation was received by Adrian Pop, Secretary of State at the ministry, and Andrei Niculae, Vice President of the Authority for the Digitalization of Romania (ADR), along with senior ministry officials including Directors Claudia Munteanu and Adrian Dragomir and Senior Adviser Alexandra Podrumaru. Both sides discussed turning long-standing goodwill between the two countries into lasting commercial partnerships through trade, investment, technology cooperation, and direct business-to-business engagement, with possible cooperation identified in agriculture and food processing, machinery and industrial modernization, energy, textiles, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, digitalization, logistics, and tourism. PRBC Chairman Sohail Shamim Firpo presented a proposal for a Pakistan-Romania 100-Day Business Challenge, under which three credible opportunities in trade, technology, and investment would be moved toward defined milestones within 100 days. Farooqi said PRBC was ready to handle the organisational work on the Pakistani side and proposed a follow-up mechanism built on focal contacts, agreed priority sectors, and regular progress reviews, describing the meeting as the start of a working partnership rather than the end of a visit.
The delegation also visited Romania’s largest milk-producing farm near Bucharest, where it was briefed that the first-generation, family-owned enterprise spreads over 7,000 hectares, grows its own grain and silage, and sells the surplus on the market. The farm keeps 7,000 Holstein milking cows, described as the world’s highest-yielding dairy breed, and also raises a faster-growing breed for meat. All operations are managed through computerised equipment, the farm supplies raw milk daily through its own tankers to a major dairy factory in Brasov, and a large biogas plant is expected to become operational soon. Talks with the owner highlighted opportunities for Pakistani businesses, including the supply of a professionally trained workforce and investment in his plan to expand the herd to 20,000 milking cows, since bank loans at 8 to 10 percent interest have become a heavy burden. The possibility of setting up a halal slaughtering facility for meat exports to the Middle East and other Muslim countries was also discussed, and the owner said he was open to other partnership models.
The two meetings were part of a wider mission that included about 30 business representatives from different sectors in Pakistan. The delegation attended a working luncheon and networking session hosted by Pakistan’s Ambassador to Romania, Ilyas Mehmood Nizami, on October 5, and took part in the Pakistan-Romania Business Forum at the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania the next day, where Nizami pointed to cooperation possibilities in solar energy, IT services, infrastructure, agriculture, connectivity, defence production, and education, and briefed participants on incentives for foreign investors through platforms such as the Special Investment Facilitation Council. PRBC also met the Romanian Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade, where it proposed a “Romania in Sindh” initiative and a Pakistan Opportunity Day in Bucharest to showcase Pakistani businesses to Romanian investors, and thanked Romanian Ambassador Dan Stoenescu and the embassy team for supporting the mission. No signed agreements or investment figures were announced, so the 100-Day Business Challenge will serve as the first test of whether the discussions turn into concrete deals. For Pakistan’s technology sector, the presence of Romania’s digitalization authority in the room suggests IT services and digital cooperation may be the area where the two sides can move fastest.
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