Finance Ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Deputy Secretary of US Department of Treasury held a trilateral meeting to review the economic developments in the region and discussed a number of initiatives to foster close economic links between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the region in general.
They met on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of Asian Development Bank in Jeju Island, South Korea.
The meeting noted that the level of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan was rising rapidly and was likely to touch a billion dollars mark during this calendar year.
It was pointed out that there was scope for further expansion in trade, provided new border points were established and transit trade arrangements further simplified.
A number of issues related to fast and unhindered movement of goods were examined. Pakistan Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz pointed out that Pakistan was in the process of acquiring scanning machines to be placed at the border points which would discourage smuggling and pave the way for use of trucks for movement of Afghan transit trade (ATT) cargo.
He elaborated on a number of steps the Government of Pakistan is taking in opening new border points and improving the efficiency of ports for expeditious clearance of goods.
He said that all major irritants had been removed, including significant curtailment of negative list of goods for Afghan transit trade.
The Afghan Finance Minister said that there was need to set up textile industry in Afghanistan.
This would induce the farmers to grow cotton, which had been a sizeable crop in the past but was replaced by others, including poppy, when caused the closure of Afghan industry.
He said that a number of successful Pakistani manufacturers were keen to establish industry in Afghanistan.
However, this would only be possible in case Afghanistan was allowed preferential access to US and EU markets along the same lines as provided to Jordan and Bangladesh.
US Deputy Secretary to Treasury, John B Taylor, agreed to discuss this proposal with his Government.
The meeting also discussed prospects of regional economic co-operation. In this regard, co-operation in the fields of transport, customs and electric power were identified as the potential areas where co-operation was feasible and will bring considerable benefits to the region.
It was pointed out that the Asian Development Bank was working on the transport side, focusing on both creating an enabling environment for transit trade as well as filling the key gaps in present roads infrastructure in Pakistan, Afghanistan and neighbouring Central Asian Republics.
Issues relating to Customs and international convention on transit trade were also covered by this initiative. Furthermore, the World Bank was studying the feasibility of establishing regional power grid from where the deficit countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan can use the surplus energy of Central Asian Republics.
The meeting also discussed the possibility of gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and noted that Asian Development Bank would soon finalise its report after which further examination of this project would be undertaken.
Taylor assured the meeting that US was keen to see a stable and prosperous Afghanistan and would help speed up the process.
He underlined the need for close co-operation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was natural, given the geographical realities of the two countries.
He said that such consultations were aimed at expanding a co-ordinated effort to achieve common objectives shared by all the three countries.
The meeting agreed to hold such trilateral consultations on regular basis, whenever possible, but at least once in a year.
Earlier, Shaukat Aziz held bilateral meetings with Ashraf Ghani, Finance Minister of Afghanistan, and Taylor and discussed matters of mutual interest.