September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: President Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tariq Saeed and Vice-President Iftikhar Ali Malik have congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on assumption of the charge of President of Pakistan and hoped that he would play an effective role in resolving issues impeding growth of the South Asia.

They hailed the remarks of Mr Zardari about continuation of the composite dialogue process with India and the back-channel dialogue and termed it a positive development towards regional growth.

They said the resolution of issues between the two major players of South Asia would positively impact the economic cooperation in the Saarc region as a whole.

Mr Saeed and Mr Malik said in the ongoing era of regionalism, it was imperative for developing countries like us to promote intra-regional economic cooperation so that the integrated efforts could be harnessed into economic prosperity of the region.

They were of the opinion that due its topography, Pakistan had been an important member state of Saarc and ECO and its friendly diplomatic relationship with India, Afghanistan, China, and Iran would help integrating regional synergies. Thus a composite regional strategy towards Saarc and ECO was required to achieve the objectives of these regional groupings.—PPI