SAARC Chamber of Commerce Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik has said that efforts are being made to increase trade between SAARC countries. Taking to media during the visit of city, he noted at present trade between SAARC countries is around 6 percent and efforts are been made to increase it and achieve jump of 10 percent by the end of current year.
Referring to government of Pakistan's announcement to give Most Favor Nation (MFN) statues to India, he said that this move will not only improve political relations but also increase bilateral trade and investment between them. He was hopeful that increase in trade will also help to resolve other disputer between the two countries.
Malik said that future of trade lies with Asia and added that China and India have already opened their markets for Pakistan as well as Chinese invests are prepared to invest in Pakistan in a big way. He advised Pakistan's business community to concentrate on these two big markets and added that if they will succeed it will help bring economic stability in the country.
Replying to a question, he said that Chinese like Pak products. FPCCI has recently opened its two branch offices in China to facilitate business community and display Pak products, he said. He further said that consumption of electricity is increased by 15 percent in last eight years and emphasised the need to utilise resources to generate power. He expressed concern over 6000 MW power shortage and said that the region has potential to generate 200,000 MW hydel power from Thar coal, Pakistan can meet its power requirement of next 100 years he pointed.