First time in the South Asian history that all the Vice Presidents from different countries of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry an apex body of chambers in the region Sunday formally felicitated the President PML,Nawaz Sharif on his landslide election victory in Pakistan.
Vice Presidents one each from India Mahendra Parmar, Bangladesh, Jashimuddin, Bhutan, Thinley Palden Dorji, Maldives, Ahmad Mujtaba, Nepal, Predeep Kumar Shrestha, Sri Lanka, Kolsala Wickaayake, Pakistan Iftikhar Ali Malik, former SCCI Chief Annis Ul Haq, SCCI President Vikramjit Singh and founder President SCCI Tariq Sayeed congratulated Nawaz Sharif. In a joint congratulatory letter sent to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif through their Pakistani counterpart Iftikahr Ali Malik, they hoped that with the installation of Pakistan Muslim League government in Pakistan, the interaction among the private sectors of SAARC member countries will be further strengthened in future under the sagacious leadership of the democratically elected government in Pakistan.
They said that businessman-turned politician Nawaz Sharif has greater economic vision and hoped that in future trade ties and bilateral relations between Pakistan and India will be improved significantly in every sphere of life. He said a stable democratically elected government in Pakistan will steer the country out the looming economic crisis and defuse tension in the region impeding progress and prosperity.
They said that political tensions and constraints that the South Asian region faced over the years played a decelerating role in the economic integration.
They said that nearly 60 per cent of total indigenous natural resources in the South Asia are yet not so far fully exploited.
“The intra-regional trade figures for South Asian are still disappointing as trade in the region constitutes only 1.4 percent of the total world imports and 1.2 per cent of global exports.
“The merchandise trade is only 27.9 percent of GDP, the lowest in the world. Although South Asia has significantly reduced import tariffs and the cost of trading across its borders is one of the highest in the world. A number of non-tariff barriers have been identified which hamper trade and increase cost”, noted Virkam.
On the prevalent bleak economic condition in the region,he said that World Development Indicators revealed that South Asia has one third of world’s population-thus representing a large workforce, tremendous business cum investment opportunities.
Iftikhar Ali Malik thanked all VPs for extending whole hearted greetings to Nawaz Sharif on election victory.
