- Commercial Attaché says by investing in Afghanistan, Pakistani investors can get easy access to the Central Asian markets
ISLAMABAD: Commercial Attaché of Afghanistan in Pakistan Sameena Wadeer on Saturday visited the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and exchanged views with the local business community on promotion of bilateral trade and investment between the two neighbouring countries.
She said that Afghanistan was introducing a lot of reforms in its business sector to promote trade activities in the country.
“Afghanistan is currently undergoing rehabilitation and reconstruction phase and it is a good time for Pakistani investors to explore the Afghan market for investment,” she added.
Wadeer said that there were 19 industrial areas across Afghanistan while price of one square meter of land in the industrial park was only 50 AFN. She continued that Afghanistan has zero tariff on machinery for domestic industries with one per cent on raw material.
She stressed that Pakistani investors should take benefit of the aforementioned incentives by investing in Afghanistan.
The commercial attaché highlighted various sectors including agriculture, energy, mining, pharmaceuticals, telecommunication and carpet-making as potential areas for investment in Afghanistan.
She said that by investing in Afghanistan, Pakistani investors could get easy access to the Central Asian markets.
Wadeer appreciated Pakistan for opening Torkham crossing point for 24 hours, saying that same facility should also be provided at Chaman crossing point.
She noted that Afghan traders have good knowledge of Pakistani market, but Pakistani traders have insufficient knowledge of Afghan market.
She emphasized that Pakistani business community should visit Afghanistan to identify potential areas of business collaboration and assured that her embassy would provide visa facilitation to genuine businessmen.
The Afghan envoy said that her country has surplus electricity and Pakistan could import energy from Afghanistan.
