By: Naveed Ahmad Jatoi
In any state, the economy is considered as the backbone because the economy brings development and prosperity to the country. Policies are made at the highest level to bring prosperity.
In these policies, state affairs with other states are of great importance and for this purpose every state strives to have cordial and friendly relations with these especially neighboring countries. One is made safe from the problem of hypotension at the border and the other brings prosperity to the country quickly, by which the country makes its name known in the world while developing and attracts the attention of the world.
Now, it is worth mentioning here that Pakistan has also been trying at all levels to maintain good relations with its neighboring countries and to promote trade with them in order to maintain peace and order in the country along with the economy. which requires political instability without which it is not possible to do so.
One of the first endeavors of democracy is the attention of neighboring countries and relations with them are very important. The democratic government of Pakistan has taken many steps towards this which are commendable, in these steps aside domestic issues and focus on friendly relations. Let’s talk about the total trade volume of Pakistan which is currently 1.3 billion dollars, which is negligible while the total trade of our neighboring country India at this time which is only in Asian countries. 22.25 billion dollars, if we talk about intra-regional organization, then the name of ASEAN is included along with SAARC, along with BRICS then Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is included.
SAARC, which is an intra-regional organization that only deals with Asian countries, had a total trade volume of 23 billion dollars, but unfortunately, Pakistan is doing more than 3% of its trade with Asian countries through SAARC. There is a need to promote trade with India or on the contrary we talk about other neighboring countries which include China, Afghanistan and Iran then our trade with China is going on, while with Afghanistan it is 1.023% which is It must be at least 15 billion dollars. It is a matter of discussion that what is the nature of Pak-Afghan relations and how much of a challenge is there to our transit trade?
Now let’s talk about Pak-Iran, in which great knowledge was seen when the Iranian president visited Pakistan last week, which was an important point of trade on which the eyes of the whole world were focused. It is very welcome and commendable. Even as Pakistan and Iran show interest in promoting trade with each other, which will open a new chapter of prosperity in both countries, the Iranian President and Pakistan will discuss the implementation of $10 billion trade with Pakistan during this visit. This being done is the need of the hour as Pakistan will get a lot of help in expanding its trade.
Among the problems facing Pakistan, trade is a major challenge, which includes the lack of political instability, which discourages foreign investors from doing business in Pakistan, besides, Pakistan is also facing the challenge of lack of electricity. On the other hand, due to the increasing effects of climate, Pakistan’s agriculture is being affected a lot, keeping in mind all these threats, Pakistan has to move forward, which looks very difficult, but the time we need is the relations with the neighboring countries. To improve and increase the volume of trade with them.
