YOKOHAMA: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar participated in the 11th informal meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) conference here on Friday.
Speaking at the meeting, the finance minister expressed confidence that SAARC would make progress towards realizing true potential and regular meetings of economic leaders which would help enhance economic cooperation among member states for promotion of trade and improving quality of life of the people who accounted for 1/5th of the world’s population. He emphasized that intra regional trade was far below its potential and there was need to expedite the process of the trade liberalization programme under SAFTA.
Dar also highlighted the positive economic indicators including growth in the GDP and substantial decrease in the fiscal deficit. Due to economic stability, Pakistan was said to be all set to join G-20 in 2030, he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Friday met German delegation, headed by parliamentary state secretary Hans Joahan Fuchtel and appreciated Germany’s continuing cooperation with Pakistan dating back to 1961, encompassing energy, health, education, governance, sustainable development and micro-finance sectors.
The Finance Minister said Germany was Pakistan’s largest trading partner within the EU.
He emphasized that given the excellent investment opportunities in Pakistan, Germany might like to explore more investment avenues. The finance minister reiterated that new areas of cooperation had been explored in the successful negotiations held between two countries in the recently held talks in Islamabad.
