‘Pakistan can enter East Asia grouping with Indonesia’s help’

Indonesia's chairmanship of Asean the right time to achieve dialogue partner status for Pakistan.

KARACHI: Indonesian chairmanship of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) in 2011 could be the right time for accelerating efforts to achieve a full dialogue partner status for Pakistan, said Indonesian Consul General Rossalis Rusman Adenan.

Talking to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President, Saeed Shafiq, at a meeting of the KCCI sub-committee on diplomatic affairs, he said that Pakistan should do more to take advantages and privileges from Asean and from the regionalism process that has been taking place in the East Asia region.

Speaking about trade relations, Adenan said that bilateral trade volume had reached the peak of $1.2 billion in 2008, but declined in the last two years due to delays in finalising a preferential trade agreement (PTA), which would lead to a decrease in tariffs on a broad spectrum of products.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume this year with hopes that the PTA will be inked in the near future and will pave the way to increasing the bilateral trade to around $2 billion, he said.

Shafiq said that the PTA would be the first step towards negotiating a broader free trade agreement. He said the signing of PTA will bridge the gap between business communities of both sides and give a strong boost to bilateral trade ties.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2011.