ISLAMABAD: Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to promote trade within the bloc and stressed on the need to eliminate bottlenecks in this regard.

An official statement issued on Wednesday said Dastagir was representing Pakistan at the Ministerial Session of 31st meeting of Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul.

The focus of this year’s session was “Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Development challenges of the Muslim Ummah: Improving Service Delivery”.

The minister called upon member states to increase intra-OIC trade while benefiting more from the COMCEC platform.

Sharing details, he highlighted that during 2012, intra-OIC trade stood at 18.2 per cent.

Pakistan’s exports to OIC countries stood at $9.2 billion and imports at $23bn, as reported by OIC trade statistics.

“The Ministry of Commerce, Pakistan is pursuing trade relations with OIC member countries through different institutional arrangements, mainly focusing on market access. These institutional arrangements include Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and various other trade agreements,” he said.

Among OIC member states, Pakistan has signed FTA with Malaysia and PTAs with Indonesia and Iran. Negotiations for FTAs with Turkey and members of Gulf Cooperation Council are in progress, he added.

The Developing 8 (D-8) is a group of Muslim countries comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

In the area of trade among the member countries, a PTA was signed on May 14, 2006.

“The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement was signed on October 28, 2010 which replaced the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement of 1965. The new agreement is based on best international practices and provides freedom of transit through the territories of both countries,” the minister said.

The commerce minister was also requested by the Asia group members of OIC to represent them in the formal session.

In his speech, he stressed upon the need to enhance economic and technical cooperation and use of various

instruments of development among the OIC member states.

He also highlighted the recent achievements of Pakistan particularly in the area of poverty alleviation and infrastructure development.

The ministerial was opened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In his speech, Mr Erdogan stressed upon increased collaboration between OIC member states on eliminating poverty and solidarity against global extremist forces.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015