Afghan envoy for enhanced trade ties with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, April 17: Afghan ambassador in Islamabad Dr. Omar Zakhilwal has called for enhanced economic relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“To exemplify the potential he said that if there were peace in Afghanistan and Central Asia was properly connected to Pakistan via Afghanistan, this would have satisfied Pakistan’s energy needs, which in turn could add up about 4 to 5 percent to Pakistan economic growth,” he said in a talk on “Regional Connectivity & Stability” panel at the 4th Islamabad Literature Festival.
He said Pakistan’s average economic growth over the past 10 years stands at around 4%. The added growth alone could double Pakistan’s national income every 14 to 17 years. “Yet despite the potentials, our region remains the least connected with less than 5 percent of our trade within the region which is half of the share of intra-regional trade in Africa as well as the Middle East. These shares stand at 70% in Europe, 50% in North American and 30% in Latin America. Intra regional tourism, signifying people to people contact, is also the lowest of any region,” he said.
Dr. Zakhilwal said that these potentials were not realized, not because of lack of ideas or regional economic cooperation forums. In fact, he said, there were no shortage of regional cooperation forums and organizations.
“Examples included ECO, RECCA, Heart of Asia, CAREC, SARRC, etc for Afghanistan and Pakistan. There were also no shortage of ideas and potential projects. TAPI, CASA, TUTAP, Energy, Railways, Hwys, were just a few of many examples. Luck of understanding of the benefits from connectivity, not only for development & economics but also for peace and stability, was not an issue either. In fact, it is largely understood that regional connectivity and economic interdependency were the best win win solutions and hope for durable peace and stability in our region.”
To a question as to why is there no progress then, he responded by saying that infrastructure needed for regional connectivity certainly was inadequate but petty politics were the main barrier.
In addition, he said, there were other reasons too. For example, regional projects, because they were potential and people were not yet touched by them, they were not relevant in domestic politics of our countries, therefore, low on our domestic development agendas.- NNI