Mand-pishin new border market to enhance Pakistan trade with Iran: PIAF
As Pakistan and Iran inaugurated the first border market and electricity transmission lines the Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has said the Mand-pishin border marketplace and the Gabd-polan electricity project would serve as a stepping stone for greater economic cooperation between the two countries, expressing the hope that it would unleash development, trade, business and employment opportunities contributing to the prosperity of the people of Gwadar and Balochistan.
Stressing the need for enhancing regional trade to ease the current economic crisis, Chairman PIAF Faheemur Rehman Saigol said that the project had been pending since 2009 and was now completed in a record time of four months. The Mand-pishin border sustenance market is expected to increase trade with Iran, helping local businesses find new opportunities. This is one of the six border markets which will be constructed along the Iranian border. He said that located in the remote village of Balochistan, the marketplace is the first of six to be constructed along the Pakistan-iran border under a 2012 agreement signed by the two sides.
The PIAF Chairman also called for early implementation of barter trade mechanism signed between Pakistan and Iran during the Joint Trade Committee meeting held in Tehran to jack up bilateral trade to $5 billion annually.
The all concerned departments, particularly the central bank, instead of creating obstacles, should start working on implementation of the barter trade through approved crossing points without any further delay, removing all bottlenecks for the smooth trade.
Faheem Saigol appreciated Islamabad as well as Tehran to take serious initiatives to remove hurdles to bilateral trade, asking Iran to also take benefits of China-pakistan Economic Corridor projects. In order to meet the objective of barter trade mechanism both parties must finalize international mechanism to remove difficulties in barter trade. He said that barter trade was in fact a right decision, which could boost Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves through escalation in exports.