ISLAMABAD - Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul trade corridor planned to be opened this year will enable Pakistan to export its trade goods to Turkey without any hindrance.
The Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul trade corridor or ECO trade corridor will later be expanded to the European countries. Fifth Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Transit Transport Coordination Council (TTCC), held in Islamabad recently, will help bring the ECO countries closer in trade and economic activities, said a source in Ministry of Communications on Tuesday.
He said that the ECO provided a unique opportunity of trade development as its member states’ borders stretched from Europe to South Asia and from the shores of Arabian Sea to the Russian borders.
Pakistan, he said, had extended transit trade facilities to landlocked member states of ECO states through its warm water seaports but the benefits of that facility could not be optimized without an efficient road and rail network.
The source said that for that reason Pakistan had conceived the National Trade Corridor (NTC) and responsibility of its early construction had been given to the Ministry of Communications. He said that the NTC would undoubtedly provide an efficient and economical road network for inter-regional connectivity particularly an effective access to Pakistan’s seaports to ECO Member states.
Establishment of Road Corridor would greatly facilitate implementation of the Transit Transport Framework Agreement (FA); an agreement signed a decade ago to facilitate trade and transport among the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organization, he said.