15th Annual Sustainable Development Conference: 'trade within South Asia can be an instrument for peace, stability'

Trade within South Asia could be an instrument for peace and stability which can also enhance bilateral relations, economic growth and reduce poverty in the region, said Khurram Dastgir Khan, Chairman National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce.
He was addressing the 15th Annual Sustainable Development Conference (SDC), organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Wednesday. Speaking at the session on "Non-Tariff Barriers in Indo-Pak trade", he emphasised upon how the trade between India and Pakistan presents immense gains for consumers and how trade could be used as a catalyst for solving other issues such as political disputes.
However, Dastgir made it clear that important issues should also be brought to the table while negotiating on trade relations, such as the issue of India's heavily subsidised sectors and possibility of India granting a sovereign guarantee to Pakistani investors while investing in the Indian market.
Ali Khizar from Business Recorder mentioned how the China-Taiwan and China-Japan example should be followed, in which trade paved the way for solving political issues. Dr Sohail Safdar, DG Trade and Policy identified South Asian region as a homogenous region. Dr Pervez Tahir, former chief economist said that Pakistan and India are two very different economies, and this fact needs to be realised before formulating trade policies.
The session on "Role of public infrastructure in reshaping Asia's future" discussed the importance of infrastructure in initiating economic growth. Dr Yumei Zhang, from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences expressed that over the period of last 30 years, infrastructures in China have significantly improved which contributed to the fastest economic growth rate of 10 percent. Dr Nadia Tahir expressed that privatisation is not the solution to improve railways in Pakistan. She said that Indian railway is technically efficient, as it is using marketing strategy of capacity utilisation, reduction in unit costs, and improvement in service quality. Naveed Iftikhar from Ministry of Finance informed that government has developed a railway revitalisation strategy.