ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday agreed to enhance bilateral trade upto US$1 billion besides establishing linkages in banking, roads, air and communications sectors.

This was stated at a joint press conference by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and visiting Afghanistan Vice President Hidayat Amin Arsala here on Sunday evening.

Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz that on the economic side the trade was growing very rapidly and during last year, trade was US$620 million and this year we are expecting US$ one billion".

Shaukat Aziz said that transit trade with Afghanistan has also picked up and a lot of the bottlenecks with regard to transit trade are being addressed. "We also feel that the time has come that there is some investment in Afghanistan from Pakistan and our contractors and suppliers are very active in the country", he said.

About the US$100 million package for Afghanistan announced by Pakistan and its utilization, he said the Jalalabad-Torkham road will be constructed and tenders have been issued in this regard and construction will start next month.

The minister added that Pakistan has also announced construction projects for an academic block in Jalalabad and Kabul universities and a kidney centre in Jalalabad, an artificial limbs center in Kandahar and an information technology centre in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The minister said for the training of Afghans in banking, central banking and customs sectors, Pakistan will provide training facilities to Afghanistan people at Islamabad and Karachi.

Pakistan is also working on the finalizing the technical feasibility study for a railway track from Chamman to Kandahar, that will make Kandahar a central place for transit trade to Central Asia, besides linking it with Karachi port.

Shaukat Aziz said "then we have the Gawadar port programme - a big initiative with the assistance of Asian Development Bank which will also connect Gawadar to Afghanistan and beyond.

He said Pakistan's banks are also active in Afghanistan. National Bank of Pakistan has already opened its branch in Kabul while Habib Bank has just obtained a license to open its branch and we have got permission to open bank branches in Kandahar and Jalalabad, he added.

PIA has already started three flights a week to Afghanistan and road, banking and communications links would open up Afghanistan for trade with the rest of the world, he said. This, he said, would also bring the Pakistan and Afghanistan economies closer to each other.

"We are also members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and finance ministers meeting will be held here in Islamabad by the end of this month and finance minister from Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani is also coming to participate in it", he said.

Shaukat Aziz said that this is for the first time the ECO economic ministers are meeting to discuss ways and means to enhance cooperation between the member countries.

Vice President of Afghanistan, Hidayat Amin Arsala said he was very pleased to visit Pakistan and "of course lot of us consider Pakistan to be the second home".

He also thanked Pakistan for hosting millions of Afghanistan refugees for several years on its soil. He said they are also pleased over the recent visit of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz to Afghanistan. He termed the visit very successful.

Mr Arsala said this visit reflected the strong bonds between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said he believed that stability in Afghanistan is good for every one and hoped that one day "we would be able to link the entire region in order to realize the potential of the region and that can be ensured through a stable Afghanistan and close cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan".

Hidayat Amin Arsala also called for continued contacts between the senior leaders of the two countries for further boosting bilateral relations. He also stressed the need for further increasing bilateral trade.

He said any help from Pakistan in the reconstruction of Afghanistan will be welcome. Replying to a question, Shaukat Aziz added that on the transit trade, Pakistan has reduced the number if items on the negative list and more items are being reduced. Shaukat Aziz said that Afghanistan is issuing three-month multiple visas to Pakistani businessmen.-APP