President Asif Ali Zardari proposed a four-point strategy on Friday to boost economic cooperation among Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Russia. Addressing the third quadrilateral summit here, he called for regional connectivity framework to physically connect the member states with road, railway and air links.
The president pointed out that Russia, Tajikistan were already connected and Pakistan might consider the road link from Dushanbe to Chitral in Pakistan through Iskatul Gulkhana in Afghanistan.
This would both be a shortest road by land and also link the ports of Gwadar and Karachi to Dushanbe and onwards to Russia, he added.
The president gave proposal for preferential trade arrangements, transit trade facilities, joint business forums, trade exhibitions and joint ventures in banking, textile, cement, agriculture and steel sectors to give a major boost to commercial and trade relations.
In this regard, he pointed out, the expansion of the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement and said inclusion of other partners would be a significant step.
He said effective utilisation of water resources and energy generation would determine peace and direction of our economies and added, in this connection, implementation of CASA 1000 hydro electricity project was of great significance.
Zardari proposes 4-point strategy to boost regional cooperation
