President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday asked the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) to undertake extensive visits of the countries in the region for enhancing trade and commerce wherever possible within the eight nation grouping.
The President was talking to a delegation of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) Chamber of Commerce and Industry headed by its President, Tariq Sayeed that called on him in the Presidency.
Besides Tariq Sayeed the delegation included Iftikhar Ali Malik, Vice President SCCI and Muhammad Iqbal Tabish, Secretary General SCCI. Waqar Ahmad Khan, Minister for Investment, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Salman Ghani, Secretary Commerce and Shahab Khawaja, Secretary Industries and Production were also present in the meeting.
The President said that the government planned to set up cement and ethanol plants in the Tribal Areas for the economic uplift of the areas and ending poverty. The produce of these plants will be exported to Afghanistan besides its utilisation in the domestic market.
He said that Pakistan is part of the international community and cannot live in isolation and it was imperative to expand trade and commerce within the region and beyond.
He said that Pakistan's trade with other countries within the Saarc grouping should not be hampered only because if trade liberalisation with India was a slow process. The President said that the Reconstruction Opportunities Zones (ROZs) concept was being finalised and expressed the hope that it will be materialised before the end of the year.
The President said that the private public partnership model would be pursued vigorously to attract foreign investment in the country. He said that the government had laid renewed emphasis on enhancing Pakistan China economic ties and advised the delegation to work for increased co-operation between the business and commerce communities of the two countries.
The President assured the delegation that he would take up with the government the issues relating to the building of a ten-story Saarc business secretariat in Islamabad, for their early settlement. The delegation appreciated the government's business friendly policies.-PR