December 22, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 6, 1422

KARACHI, Dec 21: The chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Tariq Ikram, has said that a special cell on ‘Reconstruction of Afghanistan’ is being set up in the head office of EPB in Karachi. The cell will have link-up offices in Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta.

Talking to Dawn he said the Bureau is yet to prepare a working paper on rebuilding of Afghanistan but added that the EPB will take pro-active role in the entire process in order to explore maximum opportunities the country could attain.

The objective of the special cell, Tariq Ikram said would be to stay in constant touch with reconstruction activities and institutions in Afghanistan and remain aware of global funding being made available for different projects and objectives.

The cell which will have direct links with different government departments as well as private sector will disseminate the information so collected, he added.

He further said that the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) will be asked to nominate its representative along with EPB’s in Afghanistan to obtain local information and feed it back to the Bureau and trade bodies.

Similarly, he said the private sector’s apex body will be asked to establish a cell on Afghanistan in FPCCI and should nominate at least one representative from each leading chamber like Peshawar, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Multan.

At an appropriate time, the EPB chief said a warehouse could be established inside Afghanistan so that quick and ready delivery of goods is ensured. He also hinted that a high-powered delegation could be sent to Afghanistan provided peace and security was attained in the war-torn country.

Referring to the opportunities likely to arise from the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he said the biggest would the supply of construction material such as cement, steel and other related hardwares.

In other sectors he hoped telecommunication, medicines and hospital equipments like surgical goods could provide great opportunity for Pakistan. Undoubtedly, he said food and consumers’ goods also stand good chance particularly supply of agriculture produce like wheat, rice etc.

Similarly, the private sector is also presently under the process of planning and no road map has been prepared so far for taking pro-active role in the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Though Pakistan has suffered the most in term of economics as well as social costs whether it may be the first Afghan war against Soviets or the current war against terrorism but it seems that even private sector lacks initiatives and just want the opportunities to fall in their laps.

The vice president FPCCI Haroon Rashid talking to Dawn said a committee is being formed for which the apex body of trade and industry has sought nominations from its member bodies.

He said there would be a big scope for construction industry in the multi-billion-dollar rebuilding activity of Afghanistan by the world donors and bilateral agencies.

Haroon Rashid said that FPCCI is planning to prepare two-pronged strategy which would be based on long-term. There would be economic and welfare committees to separately look into these two major sectors in development process of Afghanistan.

He said that FPCCI is asking the government to restore PIA flights to Kabul as Air India has already came into operation. Once we manage to freely operate in Afghanistan, he said a lot of opportunities would also arise from CIS states through land route from Afghanistan.

However, he said all this depends on peace in Afghanistan and once normalcy returns only then we will give final shape to our plans as nothing could be done without analyzing ground realities.