KARACHI: President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Zubair F. Tufail has congratulated Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for his successful visit to Astana, Kazakhstan, and obtaining Pakistan’s permanent membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
“Permanent membership is another milestone of the Prime Minister which will strengthen deep-rooted historical and cultural links as well as strong economic and strategic relations with all the member countries of the SCO. These include Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,” he said in a statement here on Monday.
FPCCI President said Pakistan had been actively participating in the organization’s activities as an observer member since 2005 and that it fully subscribed to the “Shanghai Spirit”.
While explaining the objectives of the Organization, he said the SCO was functioning for strengthening mutual trust, friendship, encouraging effective cooperation in politics, trade and economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, ecology peace, security and stability among the countries.
He also thanked the China for supporting Pakistan’s entry in SCO and stated that the membership particularly in the backdrop of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would further enhance Pakistan’s importance in the entire region. SCO was aimed at further enhancing the connectivity, regional stability, development, economic prosperity and trade among the member states.
With expansion of the group, the SCO would now represent over forty percent of the humanity and nearly twenty percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Pakistan was one of the larger energy consuming countries in the world and she was likely to get greater access to major gas and oil exploration projects in Central Asia. Many of the SCO countries had huge reserves of oil and natural gas, President FPCCI Zubair F.Tufail said.
