ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is ranked seventh globally among the list of countries that are receiving large inflows of remittance as the country received net remittance of $9.7 billion in 2010. Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its recent report titled 'Asian Economic Integration Monitor July 2012' says that the largest remittance inflows go to countries with the largest populations, but dependence on remittances is highest among landlocked and small island countries.
Though the remittance to GDP ratio is low in East Asia, the PRC is the largest net recipient globally, India, is second ($50.1 billion in 2010) while Philippines ranks third, Bangladesh fourth, Pakistan seventh, and Indonesia fourteenth. The report says that the lower commodity prices are helping reduce imports, which significantly spiked trade deficits in South Asia since the middle of last year. Exports have declined faster than imports causing trade deficits to widen although offset somewhat by stable remittance inflows, the widening trade deficits contributed to depreciation in currencies in most of the South Asian countries.
Asian Economic Integration Monitor July 2012 says that Asia has been particularly active in negotiating and completing regional trade agreements. While these are clear evidences of regional co-operation, they are often restrictive in scope and not all aspects are easy to implement. The utilisation of facilities offered by Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is so far relatively low. Finally, in South Asia and the Pacific and Oceania, FTA initiatives are dominated by India and Pakistan in the former and Australia and New Zealand in the latter. The report says that total number of FTAs of Pakistan as of January 2012 were 16 including 7 under negotiations and 9 concluded. Out of these 16 FTAs; 9 have been made with the countries outside Asia while the rest of 7 have been made with the countries inside Asia.
Total foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan excluding gold have been recorded worth $15.7 billion in the year 2011 that are 7.5 percent of GDP. According to the report, the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation (CAREC) Program, set up in 2001, covers Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the PRC, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Under its new 10-year (2011-20) strategic framework (CAREC 2020), CAREC's strategic objectives are to expand trade in the sub-region and improve competitiveness by implementing focused, action-oriented, and results-driven regional programs and projects in energy, trade facilitation, trade policy, transport, and economic corridor development. During 2001-2011, the CAREC Program has implemented 121 priority projects worth $17.7 billion.