KARACHI, May 24: State Minister for Commerce Hamid Yar Hiraj on Tuesday underlined the need for developing economic bloc of South Asia. He was speaking at the conference on “Indo-Pak economic relations” organized by the FPCCI at a local hotel. He said the South Asian region possessed best brain and talents and this wealth should be combined for the betterment of this region.
He urged both the FPCCI and the FICCI to come up with the parameters, recommendations and guidelines for both the governments as to how to improve business relations and combine talents and brains for win-win situation.
He suggested private sectors of India and Pakistan to take over the ownership of business promotion activities between the two countries to ensure that this process should not back off.
The state minister said the government considered the private sector as the leaders in business activities and it should play its due role in boosting business ties. He supported the idea of holding single-country exhibitions in Pakistan and India and said India’s exhibition would be held soon in Pakistan. Mr Hiraj said private sectors from both sides should identify three to four areas for joint ventures.
Earlier, FPCCI President Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed said the emergence of WTO era called for redesigning their economic policies and promote trade with Saarc countries. He was of the opinion that India and Pakistan could be major players in South Asia for bringing Saarc on a par with other trade blocks in the world.
FICCI President Onkar S Kanwar suggested businessmen of both the countries to hold as many single-country exhibitions in each other’s territories as they can. He said the FICCI was planning to hold “Made in Pakistan” exhibitions in major cities of India and in reciprocation look for holding Indian exhibitions in Pakistan.
SINDH CM: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that it is indeed a big achievement that Pakistani’s economy is going to register an impressive above seven per cent growth rate during the current financial year. He said that growing share of foreign trade in GDP showed that Pakistan was now confidently trading with the world community.
The chief minister was speaking at a reception hosted for the delegation of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.
He said the government was undertaking all necessary steps for the promotion of trade ties with India, as it today had a large trade surplus with Pakistan, and thus it was necessary to have a stable relationship between the two countries.
Dr Arbab expressed the hope that the Indian government and business community would respond to the move positively to reduce the imbalance.—APP
