Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Trade and Investment Forum Meeting held in Islamabad

Aqrab 7: October 28, 2020
Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Forum 2020 was held in Islamabad for two days, October 26 and 27, 2020.
The meeting was organized by the Afghanistan-Pakistan Friendship Parliamentary Groups in Islamabad.  In the two-day program, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Asad Qaisar, Speaker of the Pakistani Parliament, Mir Rahman Rahmani, Speaker of the Parliament, and Hashmatullah Ghafoori, Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Natural Resources of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture shared their speeches.
Other speakers were Cabinet members and representatives of the two countries.
The meeting focused on finding solutions to Trade and Transit problems between the two countries.
Dozens of businessmen and Investors from both sides joined in the forum, and four working groups were formed in the two days of the forum.
The first group to study the problems of Transit and Trade, the second group to study and prepare investment and Trade opportunities in the industrial sector, the third group to resolve problems and develop Trade and investment in Agriculture and livestock, the fourth group to work in trade and investment in services was formed.
During the two days, the groups discussed the problems of Transit and Trade, Visa issuance, Research, Agricultural materials, Raw materials, Crop processing, value added of Agricultural products and trade, reciprocal transfers of Agricultural products, preservation of Agricultural products, opportunities in the sectors.  Agriculture, export of Afghan Fruits to Pakistan, exporting and importing in Torkham, Spinboldak and Ghulam Khan Ports, export in Afghan Fruit season, export of materials through Karachi, suspension of Afghan commercial containers in different parts of Pakistan, standardization of Agricultural Products and shortening of processing processes.
They decided that the Parliament of Pakistan with the Government of Pakistan and the Parliament of Afghanistan with the Government of Afghanistan should work to solve these difficulties.
The second meeting of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Trade and Investment Forum is scheduled to take place in November with a visit by the Pakistani Parliamentary Group to Kabul.