President, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Afan Aziz said that the project of the establishment of proposed Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ) in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was foiled due to the failure of the Ministry of Commerce in taking necessary measures.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday, he said that the opening of trade with India proves beneficial for the economy of Pakistan and will create competition in industries. However, he said it will be requiring co-ordination and improvement in relations with industrial sector in the country.
He said that as importer, Pakistan can take benefit of its big industrial neighbour, saying that if we can buy from other countries then why not from India. He said that the promotion of trade will ultimately increase love between both countries. Afan Aziz, whose stint as president SCCI is expiring on Sunday (September 30, 2012), however, somehow, felt negative impact on Pakistani economy and called for taking care in the preparation of negative lists in trade with India. He said that any miscalculation in the preparation of negative list can prove disastrous.
He was of the view that the biggest mistake of the government is it is not taking the stakeholders into confidence, which proved in the case of Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA). He said that such kind of measures create regional disparity. Therefore, he said businessmen community is expressing fears in this regard. In export point of view, he said that with huge population of 1.20 billion, India is very huge market and our industry can utilise it in its benefit. However, he said that India has imposed different kind of non-tariff barriers on imports and called for their immediate removal.