Asian leaders pledge to boost investment, trade

China, Saarc nations can be new force of economic development.

Participants at two Central and South Asia ministerial conferences held in Pakistan pledged their support to boost investment in energy, trade, infrastructure and communications in the region. Thirty-two foreign and economic ministers and top officials met at two high-profile conferences in Islamabad and Lahore this week.
The seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) nations pledged to expedite their mutual investment and trade expansion at the conference in Lahore. The Saarc nations' mutual business is currently only five per cent in comparison with their global trade even after three decades of the bloc in existence.
Meanwhile, the other ministerial summit in Islamabad was the fifth in the series of 'Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process'.
The decisions taken at the two conferences covered large-scale investment in the region - funded from within, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, multilateral banks and from sources outside the region.
The range of seriousness and interest in the funding is evident from the fact that the Islamabad Conference and the Saarc session were attended by foreign and economic ministers and top executives from Azerbaijan, the UAE, Norway, the US and EU.
One of the attending ministers sought "peace, security and end to fighting" to ensure the success of the upcoming new economic zone that stretches from Bangladesh to Pakistan and north onwards to Central Asia, with Beijing building its own $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Are these just a pipe dream of politicians or will something concrete happen? The proof of the pudding lies in the fact that China has already started building several of the energy, infrastructure and communications projects in Pakistan and north-east on the Corridor's path.
At the end of the Heart of Asia Conference in Islamabad, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Turkmenistan to start talks on building the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) natural gas pipeline. It will supply natural gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The pipeline is slated to be completed by December 2017, said Shahzadi Umarzai Tiwana, parliamentary secretary to the ministry of petroleum and natural resources.
In another sign of regional cooperation, Qatar started feeding huge amounts of LNG to Pakistan this week. Motorists cheered as they managed to fill gas in cars after weeks of shutdown at petrol stations.
Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj highlighted the need to resolve political and economic problems between India and Pakistan, the region's two biggest countries. She insisted that Pakistan should allow trucks carrying merchandise from her country to Afghanistan and Central Asia at zero tariff.
For years, Pakistan has refused to open up its land routes fearing the entry of smuggled Indian goods. Pakistan's industry is already suffering from high cost of doing business and lower production due to prolonged energy outages.
Both India and Afghanistan urged Pakistan to open its borders for transit trade.
"If Afghan trucks can carry Indian products to markets in Afghanistan and Central Asia, it will be the best way to make this trade cost effective," Swaraj added.
The conference, in its 43-point final declaration, agreed to "develop trade linkages", besides addressing problems such as terrorism, sovereignty of regional states and promotion of peace to enhance trade and energy supplies on a bigger scale.
At the Saarc conference in Lahore, Commerce Minister Khurrum Dastgir said: "Despite all challenges, trade within the Saarc region is moving forward. So is economic cooperation and people-to-people contacts."
He said: "Instead of focusing on obstacles, we have to focus on opportunities. Saarc is the least integrated region in the world in terms of trade. We must try to expand overall mutual trade, investment and business cooperation."
Arjun Bahadur Thapa, secretary-general of Saarc, said: "The trade volume of the regional countries is not more than five per cent. There is potential to expand this. All member countries should do this on a fast-track basis, rather than looking to countries outside the region."
Suraj Vaida, president of the Saarc Chamber of Commerce, said: "China, when brought into our group, can trigger socio-economic development of the region by coalescing Chinese expertise and technology with the natural and human resources of South Asia."
"China and Saarc nations can become a new force of economic development," Thapa said. He was chairing a preparatory meeting of the 11th China-South Asia Business Forum (CSABF).
Saarc and Chinese business leaders and executives of the national chambers of commerce and industries attended the meeting. All heads of states will attend the CSABF Summit in June 2016. More than 1,000 business leaders from China and Saarc countries will participate.
"China-Saarc integration will form a huge market of 2.8 billion people, which can result in an economic revolution across the region. Saarc is looking towards China for mega investments in infrastructure development to increase connectivity as the prerequisite of huge expansion in trade," Vaidya said.
Yu Jianlong, secretary-general, China Chamber of International Commerce, said: "The business leadership of both the regions is committed to further strengthen the aspirations of peace and progress. We look forward to work together to take our economic and trade cooperation to new highs."
Views expressed by the author are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.