Finance minister says South Asia remains a highly protected region in terms of regional integration
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has called for implementation of the Trade Liberalisation Programme (TLP) under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).
According to the Finance Ministry, while addressing the 9th informal meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers in Azeri capital Baku, Dar added that the number of products covered in the sensitive lists of member states should be reduced further.
He stressed the need for regional connectivity for economic growth of the region and encouraged all the countries to work together for the betterment of the people.
The minister said that in the present era, regional integration had provided opportunities to make progress by addressing the problems of energy shortage, mobility constraints for lagging and landlocked regions and high transaction costs.
He said that South Asia remained a highly protected region in the world in terms of regional integration. Intra-regional trade in SAFTA remained only 5 percent of its total world trade, while in the European Union it was 65 percent, in NAFTA 51 percent and in ASEAN 25 percent.
Dar said that South Asian countries had opened their doors to the rest of the world but there was lack of market integration and weak connectivity within the region.
The demand for infrastructure, particularly electricity, was growing rapidly in the region as the economies modernised and shifted resources from agriculture to industry.
Dar said that Pakistan was already following a liberalised foreign exchange regime with respect to investment. Other member states should also liberalise it to promote investment within the region.
The finance minister on this occasion also expressed sorrow and grief over the loss of lives and property in Nepal due to the earthquake. He said people of Pakistan shared the grief of the Nepalese people and the Pakistani government was extending all possible help for relief activities.
