LAHORE : A high level 10-member delegation of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry,an apex body of chambers in the region led by its President Virkamjit Singh Sahney, will visit Pakistan soon to greet Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif. Sahney, talking to his Pak counterpart, Iftikhar Ali Malik by telephone from New Delhi on Sunday, said, “All SAARC member countries are happy on their becoming third time PM and CM Punjab which will play a vital role in political and economic stability in the region.”

He requested Iftikhar Ali Malik to seek appointment for their meeting with the SAARC CCI delegation comprising one VP from all member countries. He urged policy initiatives for durable economic trade relations in future among SAARC member countries.
He said that businessman-turned politician Nawaz Sharif had an economic vision and hoped that in future trade ties and bilateral relations between Pak-Indo will be improved significantly in every sphere of life.
He said a stable democratically elected government in Pakistan will steer the country out of economic crisis and defuse tension in the region for progress and prosperity.
Sahney said that political tensions and constraints in the South Asian region over the years played a decelerating role for economic integration.
He regretted that nearly 60 per cent of total indigenous natural resources in South Asia remained untapped so far.
“The intra-regional trade figures for South Asian are still disappointing as trade in the region constitutes only 1.4 per cent of the total world imports and 1.2 per cent of global exports. The merchandise trade is only 27.9 per cent of GDP,the lowest in the world.”  “Although South Asia has significantly reduced import tariffs, the cost of trading across its borders is one of the highest in the world. A number of non-tariff barriers have been identified which hamper trade and increase cost”, he noted.