Pak, Afghan have up to USD 10b bilateral trade potential

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation-Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC-CCI) President Iftikhar Ali Malik said on Sunday that Pak-Afghan bilateral trade has a vast potential of US $8 billion to $10 billion annually, which can be achieved easily.

Talking to a delegation of exporters led by Ms Ayesha Shafique here in his office, he added that Pak-Afghan trade could further be enhanced if the hurdles in smooth flow of trade were removed by either sides with mutual consultations.

Malik lamented that past Afghanistan government had been ignoring Pakistan without having any solid reason and was inclined towards India.

With the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, he said joint ventures in various sectors of economy would restore confidence of local and foreign investors. Soon after taking control, the Taliban lowered the domestic taxes on 153 products including food items to boost the morale of Afghan people.

He said it was a good omen that Taliban regime also abolished tax of Afghani 40,000 per Pak-truck entering Afghanistan and also made easy clearance to boost trade between two Muslim states besides, stamping out menace of corruption at all boarder crossing points.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said Pak-export to Afghanistan fell 5.5 percent from US $790 million to $746 million during the last nine months of previous fiscal year, which would now shoot up because trade with India was so far banned. He said number of scanners at the Torkham border needed to be doubled to expedite goods handling.

He said poor trade infrastructure at border crossing points were also to be upgraded on modern and scientific lines to ensure uninterrupted flow of trade volume.

Malik said Afghanistan was good market for Pakistani products and legal trade would also help to eliminate the menace of smuggling, which had since been hitting Pak economy hard.

SAARC-CCI President said that Pakistan could capture whole of Afghan markets provided government announce package of special incentives for exporters to compete with neighbouring countries.

He said Afghanistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), President Muhammad Younas Khan Momand had also been assured of full cooperation by SAARC Chamber.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said that in 2012, the bilateral trade between these two countries had reached to up to US $3 billion, but later due to security and political reasons it would dropped to US $1 billion, but now it was again on the top.

He mentioned that Afghanistan imported electrical goods, steel, cement, bricks, clothes, Kinnow (citrus fruit), bananas and other edible items from Pakistan, while Afghanistan exported fresh and dry fruit to Pakistan.

He was of the view that peace in Afghanistan was inevitable to materialize the vision of prosperity.