LAHORE, July 7: Pakistan's exports to Tajikistan can reach the level of $50 million in a couple of years, hoped Mian Anjum Nisar, the leader of Pakistan trade delegation , which recently returned home after a week-long visit to the central Asian republic.

"Pakistani products enjoy all competitiveness viz-a-viz those of Iran that presently dominates the central Asian market," Mr Nisar, who is also president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told a news conference here on Wednesday.

Mr Nisar said the 60-member trade delegation during its visit to Dushanbe organized a single-country exhibition of Pakistani products on June 25-27. He said that Pakistani exhibitors had received export orders worth $2 million at the exhibition. He said Pakistan's annual exports to Tajikistan stood at $2 million against Iran's $90 million to that country.

The LCCI chief said that Tajikistan, though a small market, could prove a base camp for exports to member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Russia and other former Soviet republics.

He said that Tajikistan was presently having trade with the outer world through the ports of Iran and Georgia, which were at a distance of 5,000 km from Dushanbe. "Pakistani ports like Karachi and Gwadar were just 2,500 km from the central Asian state," he added.

Mr Nisar also demanded the establishment of direct airlink between Islamabad and Dushanbe, appointment of a commercial counsellor at the Pakistan Embassy in the Tajik capital and establishment of branches of Pakistani banks in the central Asian republic to provide facilities to businessmen. -APP