SAARC CCI provided platform to communities: Younus Dagha

ISLAMABAD, July 12 (APP): Federal Secretary for Commerce
Mohammad Younus Dagha Wednesday said South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(CCI) has provided a platform to communities of the region for
coming together and discussing the prospects of doing business
together.
While chairing a meeting with the SAARC CCI led by its
president Suraj Vaidya, Dagha said SAARC region holds immense trade
and investment potential and to actualize that potential special
focus and effort is required for regional integration, a press
release issued here said.
He said SAARC member countries must focus on removal of non-
tariff barriers (NTBs) and must work for enhancing B2B interaction
to boost trade.
Dagha expressed pleasure that establishment of SAARC CCI has
provided a platform to the business communities of region for coming
together and discussing the prospects of doing business together.
He highlighted that although SAARC region holds immense trade
and investment potential, being home to 21% of world’s population,
it still remains one of the least integrated regional blocs with
intra-regional trade constituting only 5% of the total world trade,
in comparison to 51% for NAFTA and 25% for ASEAN.
The secretary commerce also mentioned that SAFTA has fallen short
of expectations due to complex safeguard measures and non-tariff
barriers (NTBs) among SAARC member countries.
Dagha stressed that special focus and effort is required for regional
integration and removal of NTBs to boost regional trade and actualize the immense trade and investment potential present between the SAARC member states.
The secretary commerce commended the efforts of the SAARC CCI for
arranging the activities like SAARC Business Conclave and an
Exhibition on the sidelines of every SAARC Summit. “These activities
are good for bringing business community together and promoting
regional trade”, added Younus Dagha.
President SAARC CCI, Suraj Vaidya updated Secretary Commerce
on the progress made on the permanent headquarters building project
at Islamabad and expressed gratitude for releasing of funds for the
building and said that it will help in strengthening the capacity-
building of the institution and state-of-art building of SAARC-CCI
headquarters in Pakistan will help in image building of the country.
Dagha assured the delegation that Ministry of Commerce would
provide full support to SAARC CCI in achieving its objectives and
hoped that SAARC CCI will continue to create business-friendly
environment that helps businesses to succeed.