Traders for declaring Kashmir a free trade zone

Joint chamber chief suggests transit trade through the state.

MIRPUR: The Jammu and Kashmir Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the sole joint forum of the business community of the divided state, has underlined the immediate need for declaring the state as a free trade zone in order to give impetus to trade and bring about an economic revolution.

In a telephonic address from Srinagar to a press conference here on Monday, the newly elected chairman of the chamber, Dr Mubeen Hussain Shah, called on the governments of Pakistan and India to push ahead with introduction of a liberal regime if they wanted to get the trade flourish for economic prosperity of Kashmir. The outgoing president of the chamber, Zulfiqar Abbasi, was also present on the occasion.

Shah, who would hold office by December this year, suggested cooperation between entrepreneurs from both sides in tourism, environment and hydropower production.

He also sought the go-ahead for transit trade through Indian-occupied Kashmir to Afghanistan and central Asian states and via Azad Kashmir to Middle Eastern countries.

The number of items allowed for bilateral trade should also be increased in order to give a boost to trade, he said, adding “Pakistani and Indian governments should introduce banking facilities at crossing points at the line of control to facilitate traders.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2012.