India's dream to become a global economic power is closely associated with peace and harmony with the neighbouring countries. This was stated by Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Tariq Sayeed while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Saturday. He said other issues would be resolved once the trade among eight Saarc countries was promoted.
The tariff issues under the Safta had been settled and currently the least developed countries of the region had zero-rated access to all the Saarc countries, he said. Tariq Sayeed said the tariff would come down to zero or maximum of 0.5 percent for all the Saarc countries by 2016.
He opined that Pakistan would get a golden opportunity in the form of market access to one-fourth of the global population that lived in the Saarc region. Pakistan would immensely benefit if the regional trade among the Saarc countries promoted to the level achieved under other regional trade agreements, he added.
Tariq Sayeed said after some initial reservations, the private sector by and large was convinced that the promotion of trade between Pakistan and India should get priority over all other issues. Poverty in both the countries could only be addressed if the free flow of trade and investment in the region was assured, he added.
It would also be a challenge for Pakistani entrepreneurs to compete with the zero-rated products that would be permitted to be imported from the Saarc member countries, he said, adding the challenge could be easily met by improving the efficiencies and upgrading the technologies during the next six years. The Saarc Chamber President said that non-tariff barriers were still an issue that needed to be addressed prudently.
He said that even the Indian businessmen in their interactions at the Saarc meetings had admitted that there were thousands of non-tariff barriers that discouraged imports into India. Talking about Pakistan, Tariq Sayeed said its economy had performed well below its potentials. In the sixties, the exports of Pakistan and China were almost at the same level and today China's exports had touched the staggering figure of 1.3 trillions dollars while "we are still struggling to achieve a target of 20 billion dollars."
Earlier, giving a detailed presentation on water situation in Pakistan, former LCCI Vice President Shahzad Ali Malik said that India was systematically depriving Pakistan of its due share in water by building dams and power generation projects illegally. The Saarc Chamber President said that this was an issue between Pakistan, India and the World Bank. The Government of Pakistan had already taken up the issue with the World Bank authorities, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry said that in today's globalised world, trade and business had breached national borders. In Asia and elsewhere, countries were effectively harnessing the immense power of regional trade and investment to face the challenges of the globalisation, but in South Asia, home to 117 million of the world's poor, "we still talk about promotion of trade and economic co-operation in the Saarc region.
"While regional entities like Asean have forged ahead and regional co-operation has become a part of the political and economic landscape all around us, we continue to lag behind," he said. Vice President of Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik also spoke on the occasion.
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