The business community, exporters and traders have urged upon the Indonesian government to convert Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to boost up the bilateral trade between two Muslim states and Indonesia should meet its rice and other eatables requirements from Pakistan.
President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Fareed Mughis Sheikh has urged the Indonesian Government to reconsider the import quota policy for Pakistan for and expressed hope that a quota-free market access would help Pakistani exports to grow. 'With a free trade agreement, Indonesia will also have easier access to Central Asian trade markets, using Pakistan as a transit point, which will benefit them as well,' He suggested the exchange of trade delegations between two brother countries. He added that people-to-people relations between the two countries would also be improved further, with cooperation on think tanks and education being part of the plan. Fareed Sheikh said that the barriers to trade, which hinders the free flow of product, must be removed in the modern trading system.
He congratulated the Indonesian Government for organising the 12th World Islamic Economic Forum in Jakarta. He further said that bilateral trade rose dramatically from around US $1.1 billion in 2013 to $2.2 billion in 2014, which has crossed US $2.3 billion in 2016. He said trade volume between Pakistan and Indonesia had increased by over 300 percent in the last five years.