KARACHI: Afghanistan authorities have requested Pakistan to provide a route in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for expanding their transit trade.
According to the source, Afghanistan along with other countries are in talk with Pakistani authorities, requesting to use the Sino-Pak joint project of Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC) for the commercial matters.
Afghanistan is very keen to use Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC) for the purpose of transit trade to the Central Asian countries. Recently ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan Omer Zakhilwal also met with the Pakistan Commerce Minister Khurrum Dastgir on the same issue, added source.
During the meeting both discussed the issues regarding bilateral and transit trade. The two sides agreed to hold a high level meeting involving all the stake holders to discuss issues faced by traders of both countries at operational level.
Federal Commerce Minister Khurrum Dastahir said that Pakistan attaches high priority to the enhancement of regional trade and undertook several measures last year which resulted in increase in number of Afghan transit cargo over the past few months.
The source also informed that, the Gwadar and Chaman Road constructed under the Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC) project will provide a short link to Afghanistan to access the different ports of the Central Asian countries to enhance trade through land routes with the outside world.