President Asif Ali Zardari and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon on Wednesday met on the sidelines of a regional summit, and agreed to enhance economic cooperation by strengthening regional connectivity through road, air and rail links. The two presidents were in Beijing to attend a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Presidential Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said Zardari called for developing implementation mechanisms for effective follow up on agreed decisions. The president pointed out that the existing formal trade between the two countries totalled to a $15 million in 2011, saying it was much below the potential trade volume between the two countries, the spokesman said. Zardari called for liberalising trade through appropriate mechanisms, and in this context proposed facilitating visas to the business community. Zardari was also hopeful that bilateral trade would increase considerably by opening a branch of the National Bank of Pakistan in Dushanbe. He believed that Pakistan’s ports could offer great opportunities to Tajikistan and other landlocked Central Asian countries by providing easy access to the sea. He also called for signing a trilateral transit agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The spokesperson recalled that during Zardari-Karzai meeting on the sidelines of NATO summit last month in Chicago, the two leaders had agreed in principle to extend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement to other countries in Central Asia. The spokesman added that Zardari’s call on Wednesday for signing a trilateral transit agreement was aimed at furthering the accord with Karzai.
