ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will inaugurate 8th D-8 Summit today (Monday), which would focus on enhancing trade among the member countries and increasing their share in the global market. Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Secretary Abdul Kabeer Qazi said that Pakistan would be taking over chairmanship of the D-8 countries for the next two years from Nigeria.
He said that the summit for the first time would emphasis on trade and for this purpose the Ministry of Commerce and TDAP had been assigned a major role. Qazi said that the summit would be opened with the inauguration of an exhibition, which would be followed by a Business Conference the next day to prepare a road map for future co-operation among the member countries to enhance their share in global market to 15 percent.
He said that at present, total share of D-8 countries in the global market was only 5 percent, which would be enhanced to 15 percent by 2018. He added that the D-8 Chamber of Commerce would also be strengthened to achieve this goal. In reply to a question, he said that Pakistan's export to D-8 countries was only 7 percent of its total exports and TDAP would be organising an exhibition and other events to explore possibilities to increase the trade share.
Giving details, he said that Board of Investment (BoI) would organise a Business Forum on November 20, which would be followed by a seminar and all the chambers of commerce and trade bodies had been invited to attend the event. To another question, he said that the summit would also discuss the status of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), which had not yet been ratified by Egypt and Bangladesh. To a question regarding future trade with Iran in the wake of US sanctions, he said the meeting would also deliberate on the issue.
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