Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) is going to hold 2nd Rebuild Afghanistan Trade Fair (RATF)-2005 in the month of May to promote trade with Afghanistan. This was announced by Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, a former president of SCCI and chairman, RATF committee while talking to newsmen here on Wednesday. He said that in connections with the preparations of the event a trade delegation comprising of seven businessmen of the province is set to visit Afghan capital Kabul next month. The delegation would also extend formal invitation to Afghan businessmen.
He said that the delegation during stay in Afghanistan, besides meeting president of Afghan Chamber of Commerce & Industry would also meet Afghan Commerce Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala.
For this purpose, he said that SCCI is going to make arrangements like previous exhibition held in 2003 and attended by more than 3,000 businessmen from Afghanistan. He said that like previous event Afghan businessmen would once again be accorded warm welcome at Torkham border.
Former president SCCI said, different committees comprising of businessmen, bankers and industrialists would be constituted to make it a success adding that they are going to make the event a permanent annual feature in the city. He said that they are also planning to shift it inside Afghanistan in near future.
Recalling the successful previous exhibition, he said that this year Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had consented to be chief guest of the inaugural session.
He said that such kind of business event go long way in the promotion of trade relations, saying that the exhibition would help establish direct contacts among the business communities of both neighbouring countries. He also appealed the commercial banks to contribute in the event, which would also help increase their business.
In response to a question, he said during previous exhibitions memorandum of understanding (MoUs) worth 220 million dollars were signed and this year they are expecting to double the figure.
Regarding the implementation of the MoUs, he said that agreements signed for export of tobacco and oil refineries have been fulfilled. Similarly, he said that after the previous exhibition the cement export to Afghanistan had registered high increase and now even owners of the sick cement units are considering reopening their closed industries.
Replying a question regarding the export of sub-standard and costly pharmaceutical products to Afghanistan, he said that the prices of the medicines manufactured in our country are much less than other countries of the region. Similarly, he said that check and vigilance on pharmaceutical companies is tight than other countries of the region and particularly India.
Comments
Comments are closed.