The Finance Minister expressed confidence that, "SAARC would make progress towards realizing true potential and regular meetings of economic leaders would help enhance economic cooperation among member states for promotion of trade and improving quality of life of our people who accounted for 1/5th of the world's population."
The Finance Minister emphasized that, "Intra regional trade is far below its potential and there is need to expedite the process of the trade liberalization program under South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAFTA)." The Finance Minister also highlighted the positive economic indicators including growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and substantial decrease in fiscal deficit. Meanwhile, Afghan Deputy Finance Minister called upon Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of ADB Conference at Yokohama Japan and discussed matters of mutual interest. The Afghan Deputy Finance Minister requested Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar for expediting progress on development projects undertaken in Afghanistan with the help and assistance of Pakistan.
The Afghan vice Minister acknowledged that the recent visit of a high level delegation headed by speaker National Assembly of Pakistan was a welcome step to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated that, "Both brotherly countries need more interaction to further enhance the bilateral trade and business to business exchange of visits." He mentioned that, "Pakistan-Afghan JEC shall be held later this year."
Copyright News Network International, 2017