LAHORE : President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and
Industry Ruwan Edirisinghe Monday greeting Chairman Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan on his party’s success throughout the country in general election and becoming prime minister of the country hoped that a strong political will under Imran’s leadership can lead to economic growth and poverty elimination in the SAARC region besides integration of the intra-trade, travel and tourism.
SAARC CCI President Ruwan Edirisinghe conveyed his greeting message through SAARC CCI Senior Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik to PTI Chairman Imran Khan by calling him by telephone. Ruwan said,” It will be the political will, the determination and the bonding together of the SAARC countries which would enable the growth, eliminate poverty to take place,”.
PTI supremo has highlighted the desire to improve trade and commercial ties between Pakistan and India to benefit both and to reduce poverty which is heartening as it will improve overall environment in the SAARC region. He said that majority of the world’s poor lives in the SAARC region which can be lifted out of abject poverty if both countries agree to decide matters through result oriented parleys .It will also trigger regional trade and ensure peace which will benefit all the countries and the business community, he added.
He said that he heard that business community welcomed warmly the victory
of Imran Khan and expressed hope that Imran Khan would introduce business
friendly policies in the country to promote business activities which will
ultimately helpful increasing trade in the region. “Business community was
very encouraged by the PTI victory which is also evident from the
sentiments in the market and he hopes that the party will deliver,” he
added.
Comparing South Asia with other regions across the globe, Ruwan said with
more than one-fifth of the world’s population, the SAARC region is home to
two-fifths of the world’s poor. However, it accounts for only 3 per cent of global output and 2 per cent of world exports. Intra-regional trade has
stagnated at around 5 per cent of its total trade, compared to over 50 per
cent in East Asia and around 20 per cent in Latin America. Even Sub-Saharan Africa, with poor transport and telecommunication infrastructure, scores over South Asia, with over 10 per cent of its trade being intra-regional.
