ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Wednesday informed the Upper House that approximately $50 million agreements and deals, besides 14 Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) were signed at the Pak-Uzbekistan business forum held in July this year.
During a question-hour session, the adviser said more than 2,000 business meetings had taken place during the forum.
Besides the business forum, the two sides also signed an agreement on Transit Trade (AUPTT) on July 15. “Transit trade between the two countries will take place along pre-determined routes and only utilising specified ports and border crossings,” Dawood said.
The adviser said that Uzbekistan and Pakistan were obligated to ensure that suitable infrastructure and personnel were available at border crossings and would provide separate spaces for off-dock terminals and warehousing, at entry and exit points as well as other customs notified places, on a reciprocal basis.
Each country will be responsible for licensing transport operators like trucking firms registered in their territory and would issue road transport permits on the basis of which transport operators would be able to transport goods through the other country’s territory.
Uzbek trucks may carry goods via Pakistan to sea ports rather than having to re-load them onto Pakistani trucks at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and vice versa.
Dawood said that the Uzbek government would recognise Pakistani drivers’ licenses and vehicle registration documents and vice versa, while both governments would expedite and simplify the process for awarding multiple-entry visas to truck drivers from one another’s countries.
“With the exception of selected perishable items, goods transiting through Uzbekistan and Pakistan would be stored in sealed containers meeting international specifications,” the adviser added.
He said the Uzbekistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Committee (UPTTCC), which would be established under the AUPTT, would be responsible for monitoring and facilitating the implementation of the agreement.
As of now, he said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified its rules for the implementation of the agreement. However, Uzbekistan has been requested diplomatically to notify its rules so that the agreement may be opertionalised.
