Daily Times

LAHORE: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an apex body of chambers in the region on Thursday said trilateral cooperation among Afghanistan, China and Pakistan would bring about prosperity and peace in the region.

Talking to the media persons in Lahore, SAARC Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik said that “We will continue to play its vital role for the promotion of trade with Afghanistan and special Afghan desk has also been set up to facilitate traders of either country.”

“China is proposing a trilateral mechanism for cooperation for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and coordination of counter terrorism actions between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said and added that “China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan had a long tradition of interactions and Pakistan was one of the largest trading partners of Afghanistan as it exported goods and services worth approximately $3 billion annually.”

The vice president that “The next phase of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as part of the wider One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, would be extended to Central Asia via Afghanistan.”

He added that “If we look into the CPEC, it has four main components: transit and trade, infrastructure, energy cooperation, and economic integration. Afghanistan can be helpful when it comes to all these components.” Malik said that “Afghanistan was a natural transit corridor and most of its own infrastructure projects could be aligned with OBOR.”

He added that “There were very close people-to-people and business-to-business relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.” Giving suggestions to improve trade relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said “Tariff rates should be reduced on essential commodities, non-tariff barriers lowered and trade facilitation eased to remove obstacles faced by Afghan businesses and lower the cost of transactions.”

He said “Concessionary export refinancing facilities should be made available to Pakistani exporters for incremental flows of goods to Afghanistan.”