Afghanistan and Pakistan signed an agreement on Monday to double trade between Kabul and Islamabad to $5 billion per year, and stressed the need for infrastructure including transit and energy.
The Afghan finance minister, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, and his Pakistani counterpart Mohammad Ishaq Dar, signed the agreement on the last day of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Economic Conference in Kabul.
“There should be direct cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan’s customs agencies, because the current smuggling hurts both sides. We both need joint assistance and we will stay committed to our agreement,” Zakhilwal said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on different issues including determining an area for building a storehouse for Afghan traders in Karachi and Qasim Khan Ports, direct cooperation between the two countries’ customs agencies, solving transit problems, extending the Peshawar-Kabul highway, giving 3000 scholarships to Afghans, accelerating work on the Peshawar-Jalalabad and Qandahar-Chaman railways, Kunar Electricity Project and some other major projects.
Ishaq Dar added that his country will start the survey of Peshawar-Kabul highway, if Afghanistan can provide security for the project.
“This is the responsibility of both countries’ leadership to work hard together, identify this common enemy…this is the only solution, otherwise you continue to have these problems and we continue to have these problem,” Ishaq Dar said.
Pakistani side has repeatedly stressed the funding and implementation of the Kunar Electricity Project and Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project, which can provide electricity for the country.
Tolonews
Tags: Afghanistan, Pakistan
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