Afghanistan should ease visa process for Pak businessmen: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Monday asked Afghanistan to ease the visa process for Pakistani businessmen, adding that the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between the two countries must be given a final shape. “We have established Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on energy, trade and commerce, development projects, railways and road connectivity with Afghanistan. Both countries decided to kick-start the negotiations on the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) on the sidelines of next Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Coordination Committee (APTCCA) by next March 2016,” Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar told a joint press briefing along with visiting Afghan Minister Akleel Hakimi here after concluding the 10th Joint Economic Commission.
Both the countries also agreed on expanding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan by establishing road connectivity among Gwadar, Khuzdar and Herat as well as importing 2,000MW electricity from Turkmenistan.
The Afghan minister said that both the sides agreed on a mechanism to remove the existing gaps in order to implement a shared vision envisaged during the last visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Islamabad.
He said that Afghanistan wanted to get access to South Asia and there were bottlenecks which would be removed gradually. “We are both committed to peace in our region,” he added.
Dar said that Pakistan wanted to get market access to the Central Asian Republics (CARs) while Afghanistan was trying to get access to the South Asian states and hot waters but the minister did not mention India in his media interaction. “Besides these new initiatives, both the countries also agreed in Istanbul (Turkey) to materialise the 1,000MW CASA project whereby Afghanistan offered Pakistan to get an additional 150MW without any transit fee,” said the minister.
A peaceful Afghanistan, he said, is in the interest of Pakistan and it also applies in the case of her Muslim neighbour Afghanistan. The minister said that the trade volume stood at around $2 billion which would be expanded to $5 billion by December 2017.
According to an official announcement, the 10th session of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission was held here on Monday.
Dar and Akleel Hakimi led their delegations respectively. Both sides discussed the issues relating to trade and economic cooperation at length and agreed to enhance trade up to $5 billion by the end of 2017.
Both sides agreed to hold a Joint Business Council meeting in the first quarter of 2016 and negotiations on the PTA on the sidelines of APTTCA meeting in Kabul before March, 2016.
Both sides agreed to hold the third round of Trilateral Transit Trade agreement in Kabul. During the meeting, matters relating to bilateral investment also came under discussion.
Both sides agreed to work together for exploring the land routes for enhancement of trade and regional integration for economic benefit of the people of both countries.
Both sides also agreed to expedite work for materialising the projects such as the Chaman-Spinboldak rail link, Peshawar-Jalalabad rail link and construction of road and railway line between Miranshah and Khost.
The two countries resolved to enhance cooperation in energy sector for implementation of joint projects on Kunar River, CASA-1000 and joint venture in energy sector.
In order to fast-track the implementation of decisions taken during the session, both sides agreed to set up Joint Working Groups (JWG) at senior level for commerce and trade, energy, railways and projects under the CRRA funding. The JWGs will meet at least once every quarter alternatively in Kabul and Islamabad.