In a statement issued here Saturday, he said that the SAARC Chambers of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) should play a proactive role to exploit these opportunities in order to eliminate poverty from the region.

He had a meeting with Mr Ruwan Edirisinghe, President SAARC Chambers of Commerce & Industry, during a workshop on 'Promoting Outreach and Services to SMEs to Improve EBMO's representativeness' in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Farooq Yousaf expressed concern that various economic blocs have played an instrumental role in enhancing their regional trade but SAARC failed to achieve the objective due to various reasons and hence the region was suffering from multiple economic problems.

He lamented that regional trade between SAARC member countries was only 5 per cent, which should be around 60 per cent.

He said that SAARC Chambers should fix a target to increase at least 5 to 10 per cent trade between its member countries on yearly basis.

Farooq also extended an invitation to Ruwan Edirsinghe to visit the FCCI.