President, Pakistan Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), Zubair Motiwala has said that a high level 31 member trade delegation of PAJCCI will visit Afghanistan from October 7th and discuss issues related to boosting two way trade and investment.
Addressing a news conference, he said that it is the first trade delegation to visit Afghanistan to discuss and get its share in the Afghan market. At present, two way trade is around 2 billion dollars whereas potential is more than 5 billion dollars. He said that the prime objective of the visit is to provide an opportunity to the business community across the board to interact with each other for transforming bilateral economic deals.
He pointed out that India has promoted Afghanistan in a big way and got many contracts in all areas of economic activities whereas Pakistan which is next door to Afghanistan has made no effort to get its share in Afghanistan trade and investment. Motiwala said that the delegation will hold a meeting with the Afghanistan Ministry of Commerce, Afghanistan Investment Agency, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, Ambassador of Pakistan to Afghanistan and other important organisations.
He said that the delegation will also discuss Afghanistan Transit Trade (ATT) agreement with Minister of Commerce Afghanistan and apprise him of Pakistan business community concerns over the agreement. He said that he will discuss the issue of opening banking channels between the two countries and opening LCs of import in Afghanistan, all containers of Afghan Transit Trade must be sealed and opened in Afghanistan only, Afghan imports should pay duty in Pakistan which should be refunded at the Pak Afghan boarder, there should be fiscal reforms of custom duty and he suggested that it should be the same in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The PAJCCI will sign an MoU with the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and hold a B2B meeting. Motiwala said that it would be his utmost priority to ensure a win-win situation for all stakeholders by resolving the long pending issues between the business community amicably and help facilitate the business community across the board in the greater interest of both nations.
He said that the chamber will serve as body to enhance trade relations between the two countries without succumbing to any unrelated political or cultural influence. Replying to a question, he said that smuggling from Afghanistan was hurting the textile industry in a big way.
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