SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Virkamjit Singh Sahney on Sunday congratulated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif on his party’s landslide victory in the elections and urged for policy initiatives for durable future economic trade relations among SAARC member countries, especially between India and Pakistan.
Sahnay asked SAARC Vice President (VP) Iftikhar Ali Malik to convey his wishes to the PML-N leader.
He said that businessman turned politician Nawaz Sharif had economic vision and hoped that in the future trade ties and bilateral relations between Pakistan and India would improve significantly.
He said that a stable and democratic government in Pakistan would steer the country away from economic crisis and defuse tension in the region, paving the way for progress and prosperity.
Vikramjit Sahnay said that political tensions in the South Asian region had discouraged economic integration over the years.
He regretted that nearly 60 percent of total indigenous natural resources in South Asia remain untapped.
“The intra-regional trade figures for South Asian are still disappointing as trade in the region constitutes only 1.4 per cent of the total world imports and 1.2 per cent of global exports. The merchandise trade is only 27.9 per cent of the GDP, the lowest in the world,” he added.
“Although South Asia had significantly reduced import tariffs, the cost of trading across its borders was one of the highest in the world,” he further informed.
Moreover, he said that non-tariff barriers had been identified which hampered trade and increased costs in South Asia.
Iftikhar Ali Malik thanked Virkamjit and all the other VPs for extending whole hearted greetings to Nawaz Sharif on his election victory.