CityofVillains
June 16th, 2006, 07:52 PM
Pakistan to finance road construction in Afghanistan
M ISRAR KHAN
ISLAMABAD- Pakistan has agreed to provide financial support to Afghanistan for the construction of roads as existing roads are not smoothly catering to the increasing traffic load. Besides, Islamabad has also announced to grant up to 1000 scholarships to the Afghan students and excluded cooking oil from the negative list.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Salman Shah announced this at the concluding session of a two-day Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) here on Thursday. He said the construction of the roads, which would be financed by Pakistan, include a new parallel road between Torkham border and the eastern city of Jalalabad and another road between Jalalabad and Jabal-us-Siraj via Sarobi.
Afghan side informed that Pakistan, being the largest Muslim donor to Afghanistan, has earmarked $250 million for Afghanistan reconstruction out of which $109 million have so far been utilised and the remaining would be consumed for the proposed road projects.
Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, the Afghan Finance Minister while talking to Business Recorder after the concluding session said that all bilateral trade issues had been settled with Pakistan and appreciated the Pakistan's decision to annually provide 1000 scholarships to the Afghan students.
"Issues relating to Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and bilateral trade have been resolved. We appreciate especially Islamabad's decision to provide scholarships to our students. The training, which it would provide to our custom officials, diplomats, police officers, bankers and accountants would help in our skill development and this is a very 'good development' for us," he said.
Ahady informed that both the countries have also constituted a joint committee to look after the ATT and solve all the obstacles hindering smooth flow of transit trade.
Dr Salman Shah said that Pakistan was focusing on developing infrastructure, provision of road links and better communication facilities from Gwadar to border areas to facilitate Afghan trade.
However, Pakistan expressed concern over the smuggling of goods from Afghanistan to Pakistan having distorting impact on smooth flow of trade. Both sides expressed satisfaction over the encouraging bilateral trade, which increased to $1.2 billion in 2005-06 from only $169 million in 2000-01. They also agreed to enhance measures for increasing Afghan exports to Pakistan.
Afghanistan would identify exportable items in areas of potential joint ventures so that private sector of both the countries could be encouraged for increasing Afghan exports to Pakistan.
With regard to ATT, the Afghan government acknowledged that transportation and handling of Afghan transit goods had considerably improved during the last three years.
M ISRAR KHAN
ISLAMABAD- Pakistan has agreed to provide financial support to Afghanistan for the construction of roads as existing roads are not smoothly catering to the increasing traffic load. Besides, Islamabad has also announced to grant up to 1000 scholarships to the Afghan students and excluded cooking oil from the negative list.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Salman Shah announced this at the concluding session of a two-day Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) here on Thursday. He said the construction of the roads, which would be financed by Pakistan, include a new parallel road between Torkham border and the eastern city of Jalalabad and another road between Jalalabad and Jabal-us-Siraj via Sarobi.
Afghan side informed that Pakistan, being the largest Muslim donor to Afghanistan, has earmarked $250 million for Afghanistan reconstruction out of which $109 million have so far been utilised and the remaining would be consumed for the proposed road projects.
Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, the Afghan Finance Minister while talking to Business Recorder after the concluding session said that all bilateral trade issues had been settled with Pakistan and appreciated the Pakistan's decision to annually provide 1000 scholarships to the Afghan students.
"Issues relating to Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and bilateral trade have been resolved. We appreciate especially Islamabad's decision to provide scholarships to our students. The training, which it would provide to our custom officials, diplomats, police officers, bankers and accountants would help in our skill development and this is a very 'good development' for us," he said.
Ahady informed that both the countries have also constituted a joint committee to look after the ATT and solve all the obstacles hindering smooth flow of transit trade.
Dr Salman Shah said that Pakistan was focusing on developing infrastructure, provision of road links and better communication facilities from Gwadar to border areas to facilitate Afghan trade.
However, Pakistan expressed concern over the smuggling of goods from Afghanistan to Pakistan having distorting impact on smooth flow of trade. Both sides expressed satisfaction over the encouraging bilateral trade, which increased to $1.2 billion in 2005-06 from only $169 million in 2000-01. They also agreed to enhance measures for increasing Afghan exports to Pakistan.
Afghanistan would identify exportable items in areas of potential joint ventures so that private sector of both the countries could be encouraged for increasing Afghan exports to Pakistan.
With regard to ATT, the Afghan government acknowledged that transportation and handling of Afghan transit goods had considerably improved during the last three years.