ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Pakistan agreed with Afghanistan on Tuesday to remove six more items from the negative list of exportable items under the Afghan transit trade, reduce railway and port charges and simplify the custom procedures to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

The two sides also agreed to enhance bilateral air-traffic, immediately open the branches of banks of the two countries and start railway traffic between Chamman and Kandahar.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Afghan counterpart Dr. Ashraf Ghani said there was a complete consensus during the three-day Joint Economic Commission (JEC) to work in harmony towards promoting trade opportunities.

Besides the ministers and officials, 10 private sector members, most of them traders and businessmen, from both the countries also participated in the meeting. The JEC concluded that private sector must work closely to remove difficulties and bottlenecks in the trading environment.

Shaukat Aziz said the visiting Afghan delegation also called on President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Tuesday morning.

He said Pakistan continued to recognise that Afghan transit trade should be simplified and has decided to remove six more items from the negative list and a summary to this effect would be taken to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet shortly.

He said Pakistani exports to Afghanistan had increased to $400 million while imports from Afghanistan stood at $35 million which required further improvement. He said Pakistan had earlier allowed Afghanistan to take its products to India through land route and its exports to New Delhi now stood at $14 million.

He said Pakistan would also assist Afghanistan in the capacity building, including training in the fields of customs, micro-finance, accounting and auditing in the government departments, payment system and banking and post offices.

He said a delegation led by Afghan deputy minister of commerce would hold meetings with customs and port officials in Karachi on Tuesday morning to sort out all procedural issues that hamper the bilateral trade.

He said the Pakistan Railways has brought freight charges at par with national transportation charges which together with better port facilities would improve Karachi-to-Torkham trade.

Shaukat Aziz said the two sides have also agreed to enhance air-traffic between the two countries from Islamabad and Peshawar to Kabul and open bank branches on reciprocal basis in the two countries. He said National Bank of Pakistan and Habib Bank Limited wanted to open their branches in Afghanistan and added this would be possible when a banking law in Afghanistan is approved very shortly.

The two sides, he said, also discussed utilization of $100 million aid to Afghanistan which Pakistan had committed last year. This was currently being utilized in various projects but now commodities would also come under this grant utilization.

To begin with, Pakistan would supply sugar to Afghanistan and then consider other commodities. He said Jalalabad-Torkham road would be developed under this aid by Pakistan. Education sector has also been included in this programme, he said.

Afghan Finance Minister Dr. Ashraf Ghani said an amount of $1.5-2 billion would be spent in the reconstruction of Afghanistan which offered a lot of opportunities for Pakistani companies. He said that around 6,000 Pakistanis were currently working in construction industry in Kandahar alone.

He said Afghanistan was looking at Gwadar port as the “Port of Peace” and intended to develop such an transport and road network so as to take full benefit of its proximity with Central Asian States and the Arabian Sea.

Till such time, he said Kabul wanted to utilize Karachi port where there were a lot of bureaucratic hurdles which needed to be removed.

Responding to a question on security of Pakistani businessmen, the Afghan minister said $200 million were being spent on recruitment of special mobile police force and armed forces to guard Kabul to Kandahar and then to Torkham in two phases. It would take some time.

He parried questions relating to involvement of Afghan central bank chief in the recent attack on Pakistan Embassy in Kabul and expected fair play in award of contracts but said the government would ensure that Pakistani businessmen would not be subjected to unfair treatment.