Convenor of the ECO Chamber of Commerce & Industry's (Pakistan Chapter) special committee on industrial cooperation and investment, Zubair Tufail, has urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Board of Investment (BOI) to deal with the issues concerning ratification of Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investment (APPI) on priority.
Presiding over a meeting of the committee held at the Federation House, he explained that the enforcement of APPI will help the member states enhance commercial and economic activities, investment, transfer of technology and in creating new employment opportunities under the uniform commercial laws in the region. He said that the ECO CCI's agreement on promotion and protection of investment is a comprehensive agreement signed by the National Chambers of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan and only Iranian government has ratified it. The ratification from other member states, including Pakistan, was still awaited and without which the agreement will not be enforced in the region.
The meeting also recommended that the ratification process of trade and investment-related agreements between all member countries of the ECO region should be accelerated in all ECO member states. Calling for early ratification of APPI, Zubair Tufail said that the agreement has great importance in the scenario of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan which will facilitate not only Pakistan, but also all member states of the ECO region.
Moreover, APPI is an investment-oriented agreement for harmonising investment-related laws in all 10 countries, he added. Zubair Tufail further informed that Pakistan has also given a proposal for holding a `Business Leaders Conclave' in Pakistan in 2016 and the ECO Trade Fair in any member state in 2016. He said that both the proposals will be discussed in the next meeting of executive committee of the ECO Chamber of Commerce & Industry, scheduled to be held in December at Ankara.