PESHAWAR: Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Sherbaz Bilour has urged Islamabad and Kabul to devise a joint mechanism for the business community and make a consultation with the SCCI that to further boost to bilateral and transit trade relations between the two neighbouring countries.
Talking to a delegation of industrialists and traders community following his and other SCCI members’ attendance the recent two-day international forum here at the chamber house on Thursday, Bilour noted that the trade forum had played a pivotal role in the removal of trade barriers as well as bringing the business community of both countries closer to each other.
The international trade forum was attended by more than 100 members of the business community from Afghanistan and members of SCCI, Chaman Chamber and traders from Quetta.
Bilour further called upon Islamabad and Kabul to take pragmatic steps to resolve problems faced by the business communities on both sides of the border.
He said that the mutual trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan can be enhanced up at $5 billion if serious efforts were made by the governments of both countries.
He also stressed on the need for regularly holding of such meetings between the business community of the two countries, adding that an improvement in Pak-Afghan trade and economic relations would bring economic prosperity, development and sustainable peace in the whole region.
“The two governments must take concrete steps to remove hurdles in the way of mutual economic interests if they wish to a stabilise their national economies and strengthen trade with central Asian countries to improve exports,” the SCCI president concluded.
