ISLAMABAD, (TDI): Pakistan and Tajikistan signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during the seventh session of the Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Commission held in Islamabad this week, reported by Radio Pakistan on Thursday.
The two MoUs were signed at the closing of the seventh Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Commission meeting in Islamabad.
The first MoU establishes a “historic partnership” between Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and Tajikistan’s Khatlon province, enhancing mutual cooperation and development.
The second MoU was signed between the football federations of both countries. A business-to-business (B2B) forum between Pakistan and Tajikistan is scheduled for Dec. 13 in Islamabad.
At the Joint Commission, Leghari, alongside Tajikistan’s Energy Minister Juma Daler Shofaqir, emphasized the need to explore new avenues of commercial and economic cooperation. Leghari highlighted the creation of the joint coordination committee on transit trade, which aims to address operational challenges and ensure the smooth implementation of transit trade agreements.
He expressed hope that the discussions at the Joint Commission would lead to concrete recommendations for growth in trade, energy, agriculture, education, and the industrial sector. Leghari also called for a plan of action to increase trade volume by enhancing trade activities and removing barriers.
According to Tajik Customs, bilateral trade between Pakistan and Tajikistan in 2023 reached $52.73 million, a 62.3% increase from the previous year.
Leghari stressed the importance of extending regional connectivity and invited Tajikistan to utilize trade corridors from Dushanbe to Gwadar and Karachi under the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program, as well as other multi-modal transnational trade corridors.
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He also underscored the potential of the $1.2 billion Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), which will bring 1,300 megawatts of surplus electricity from Central Asia to South Asia.
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This project involves the construction of a 1,227 km-long cross-border transmission line connecting Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Leghari urged the acceleration of remaining work to fully realize the potential of this vital energy cooperation for mutual benefits in the power sector.
