Regional trade: Cordial ties pivotal for economic prosperity

Fahim urges roadmap to boost trade and survive challenges.

ISLAMABAD:

Cordial business and political ties with neighbouring states, including India, are inevitable as well as pre-requisite for economic prosperity and peaceful ambience for this strategically sensitive and important regional belt, said Federal Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

The regional states are required to work out a new roadmap to survive existential economic challenges by taping regional potential for sustained economic growth, the minister said during a meeting with a delegation headed by Pakistan-India Business Council (PIBC) Chairman Noor Muhammad Kasuri.

The minister said that economic and political engagements among the neighbouring states are, in fact the lifeline of their sustained economic development as well as an oasis of peace and security in the region. Fahim further said Pakistan has always been longing for good economic and political relations with all neighbouring states, including India.

Kasuri urged the commerce minister to help promote organic business and political bonhomie with the neighbouring countries including India, enabling all the regional stakeholders to reap the economic dividends on win-win basis for their mutual benefits.

Relations among diverse states of the region especially between India and Pakistan, which are traditionally suffused by a trust-deficit, can be transformed into sterling ties and further developed by demolishing the walls of mistrust, piecing together common values and exploring grounds of mutual advantages, he further added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2011.