Islamabad (TDI): Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday invited the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries to integrate their value chains with Pakistan’s Special Economic Zones and explore opportunities for cross-border industrial clusters by leveraging Pakistan’s preferential trade deals with China, ASEAN and the Middle East.
He extended the invitation while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 5th annual Carec Institute Research Conference, organized in collaboration with the University of Sargodha.
With the title of “Carec Connectivity: Promoting Trade and Trade Facilitation,” the event brought together many national and foreign stakeholders.
“Today, intra-regional trade among CAREC nations (excluding China) accounts for only 7 percent of total trade. In contrast, ASEAN bloc member nations have more than 22 percent of total trade among themselves,” he said.
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The CAREC region, with a population of about 2 billion and immense reserves of energy, minerals and talent, was not short on potential, the minister stated and emphasized the need for a unified development strategy supported by collective action.
Mentioning the new development vision “Uraan Pakistan”, the minister said it was based on 5 strategic pillars including e-Pakistan, environment, exports, equity and empowerment, energy and infrastructure.
He said that this strategy is not isolated from regional ambitions but is aligned fully with the CAREC Vision 2030.
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He added that Pakistan was on way to enhance high-value exports such as Information Technology, halal food and engineering goods.
Pakistan’s IT exports, for instance, have hit $3.5 billion and are growing at an annual pace of 20 percent, empowering youth through digital skills, he added.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
