COLOMBO: Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Sunday agreed they would waive off the requirement for official and diplomatic visas and restore PIA flights to Colombo.
In a series of meetings held in Colombo by President Asif Ali Zardari with the Sri Lankan president, prime minister and foreign minister, with the two sides signed three agreements and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance bilateral ties.
The agreements and the MoU aim at abolishing visas, facilitating customs clearance, increasing cooperation in agriculture development and promoting arts and creative studies.
The two leaders also agreed to work towards inking agreements enhancing trade and defence ties on the one hand and connectivity and cultural exchanges on the other.
Briefing reporters on Sunday’s meetings in Colombo, president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the highlight of the meetings was the decision to reinvigorate the Joint Economic Commission and tasking it with working out the modalities for a new and unconventional phase of economic cooperation marked by barter trade, currency exchange and banking interchanges.
The agreement came about after the two sides agreed that the present trade level of $300 million was far below true potential.
Babar said the president offered Pakistan’s help in setting up sugar and cement plants in Sri Lanka in return for import of Sri Lankan produce and products to Pakistan as barter trade or in local currencies, obviating the need for making payments in dollars, thereby reducing pressure on their limited foreign exchange reserves. Calling it as a “win-win situation for both”, the president suggested that the finance ministers of the two countries should sit together to immediately work out the details – a proposal which the Sri Lankan side agreed to readily.
