January 24, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 04, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Pakistan and Japan on Tuesday agreed to move forward on a 15-point agenda under the proposed roadmap to enhance bilateral cooperation and trade between the two countries.

The two governments during the last couple of years identified these areas for removing hurdles and irritants ranged from the issuance of visas to technical assistance in various areas, particularly in the human resource development.

An official told Dawn following the concluding meeting of the Pakistan Japan Joint Business dialogue here on Tuesday, that the Japanese side has raised the issue of lack of infrastructure as one of the bottleneck for attracting Japanese foreign direct investment in Pakistan.

It was recommended that Pakistan should accelerate development of infrastructure by starting various projects such as road rehabilitation, public and goods transport, port facilities, water and power supply and industrial parks.

The government of Japan would ask Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) to enlarge a ceiling on short-term basis (less than one year) and more importantly facilitate medium and long-term insurance with larger ceiling. However, Islamabad would make efforts to meet conditionality of the NEXI.

For de-regulation of pharmaceutical prices in Pakistan, it was recommended to Pakistan to implement the pricing formula, which was agreed between the government and industry in 1994 to adjust prices in line with inflation or lift price control. The Japanese side stressed for lifting of price control on pharma products.

The Japanese side was of the opinion that controlling of prices eroded the profitability of the companies and made the business unsustainable in the long run. Pakistan has also been asked not to grant registration to any generic product for which a legal patent was applicable.

It was recommended that Pakistan should facilitate and finance Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (IDBP) to make the re-scheduled payment to Japanese creditors as soon as possible. This is the last bad debt by Japanese private sector to Pakistan, which had created bad image for the country.

It was also proposed that Pakistan should provide tax incentives to FDI, which should be tax free for a minimum of five to 10 years in the line with other countries like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Incentives also for expansion of existing business, they added.