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February 18, 2002
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Monday
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Zilhaj 5, 1422
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A Euro-Asia market?
Ashcroft’s blabber
Enforcement is key
A Euro-Asia market?
THE Turkish proposal for establishing an enlarged Euro-Asia trade region has a lot to commend it. Professor Dr Suku S. Gurel, the Turkish minister of state, who unveiled the vision of this new trade region in an interview with this newspaper the other day, has very rightly argued that great opportunities exist for Turkey and Pakistan to make joint efforts to realize the trade and economic potential for mutual benefit in an enlarged Euro-Asia market. Turkey is linked to Europe and Central Asia while Pakistan can serve as a gateway to Central Asia. With the advantage of their strategic locations, the two countries could take the initiative for the development of a vast market which can even be enlarged to take in North Africa and Southern China. So, a vast market between Casablanca and Urumq could be established for the benefit of a large number of countries, most of which are at present in a state of under-development because with the exception of a few, none of them belong to any prosperous economic or trading grouping.
Most of the highly active trading blocs like the EU, NEFTA and ASEAN concentrate on increasing the prosperity of their members and try to join hands with blocs already on the high curve of development. This practice has marginalized less active blocs like ECO and SAARC. In fact, ECO to which both Turkey and Pakistan belong and SAARC which includes Pakistan have remained hamstrung and there appears to be no hope of these blocs making any headway in the near future. So, it is in the interest of Turkey and Pakistan to come together and try to translate the vision of an enlarged Euro-Asia market into a reality. By paying more attention to education and skills development they can enhance their ability to make the most of the other principal resource of the region — oil — for the benefit of all members of the proposed grouping.
However, before mounting an initiative, it is imperative that the official economic managers of Pakistan and Turkey and the private business leaders should sit together and discuss the proposition thoroughly in order to identify all the pitfalls and hurdles in the way of establishing a Euro-Asia trading bloc. A lot of hard work is needed, like studying the various comparative economic advantages and disadvantages of the potential members and finding out how best to exploit the advantages for the benefit of all and also to see how the disadvantages could be overcome. At the moment the economies of both Pakistan and Turkey are not doing well. Both are under IMF programmes. However, they could begin by first identifying their respective economic advantages and trying to put them in the perspective of mutual benefit so that the results could inspire the other potential members of the proposed bloc to come forward and join the exploratory initiative. The reconstruction of Afghanistan offers Pakistan, the gateway to Central Asia
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