PESHAWAR: President, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sherbaz Bilour stressed the need for signing of free trade and preferential trade agreements for promotion of regional trade.

This, he stated while addressing a group of probationary officers of Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (PITAD), subsidiary body of the Ministry of Commerce during their visit to chamber house here on Tuesday.

The group was led by the PITAD Director Muhammad Shafiq Haider while other members of the group were include Deputy Director Dost Muhammad, Assistant Directors Pir shah Gul Ahmad, Abbas Durrani, Abdul Wakeel, Nauman Muhamamd Khan, Matta E Zehra, Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Arfa Shahid, Jalal Khan, Talha Majid, Inspector TDAP Javed Ali.

Sherbaz Bilour emphasized that promotion of bilateral trade with central Asian republics is the dire need of the hour. He also called for sustainable economic policies and proper consultation with the business community to boost up industrialization, enhancement of exports and economic prosperity in the country.

KP has highly dependent on trade with Afghanistan and regional countries wherein abundant natural deposits existed, says SCCI chief. He said if the natural resources of KP were tapped in an efficient way that can enhance the country's exports and bilateral trade volume with regional countries.

Sherbaz Bilour especially mentioned on the occasion that during the visit of Prime's Minister Imran Khan to Uzbekistan, the SCCI had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) Uzbekistan Chamber and Surkhandarya Chamber, terming it as a milestone initiative toward promotion of regional trade.

He disclosed that the chamber is going to sign agreements with other regional countries very shortly.

The chamber president expressed the hope that the agreements would be a catalyst for enhancement of bilateral trade with central Asian republic states which would bring sustainable economic stability, besides generating employment opportunities for locals as well.

He stressed the need for paying special attention to regional trade, for which signing of PTA and FTA would be paramount important. He emphasized that the government should take pragmatic steps to ensure provision of facilities and remove impediments in the way of regional markets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021