Talking to businessmen during his visit to Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), he said that Project Management Unit (PMU) constituted for execution of the project, had opened its office in Islamabad and Peshawar to kick start implementation work. The project will be completed in stipulated period of 2 years. "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing $300 million loan to Pakistan for execution of the project on soft term basis," he told.
The project also includes construction of similar border complexes at Wagha post on Pak-India border and at Chaman in Balochistan; he said and added that presently work on Torkham is started. "The state-of-the-art border complex is being constructed at Torkham to improve facilities related to clearance of goods laden trucks crossing border to Afghanistan and CARs," he added. The complex covers area of 700 kanals, he said would comprised of Customs and Immigration Offices, 2-way Customs and Immigration Terminals, checking and scanning plazas for pedestrians, passenger and cargo vehicles with other infrastructure.
The complex, he said would be the first of its kind in the country, which would make border crossing systematic, fully computerised and augment the trade volume on the historic route. "Border Custom Complex is a step towards achievement of goals set under CAREC (Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation), a partnership of 10 countries and 6 multilateral development partners working to promote development through cooperation, leading to accelerated economic growth and poverty reduction," he continued.
He also disclosed that Pakistan has signed International Transit Trade Agreement which allows transportation of goods by citizens from member countries of the agreement to take their goods any where through Pakistan. The member countries of this International Transit Trade Agreement are around 60 to 70, he apprised SCCI members.
Collector Customs also dispelled the impression that there is a drastic decrease in bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He told that last year the export figure from only Torkham was around Rs 126 billion whereas in the preceding year (2014-15), the trade figures are Rs 130 billion.
The overall export of Pakistan to Afghanistan last year was $1.2 billion and the figure of Afghan Transit Trade is 2 billion dollars, making the total figure to 3.2 billion dollar, Qurban Ali claimed. In response to a question about setup of Azakhel Dry Port in Naushera district, Collector Customs told that work on the project is in progress and hopefully the dry port would be functional in the current calendar year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017