Pakistan for cooperation to increase regional trade

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is eager to increase cooperation among the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in banking and finance fields to jack up the volume of regional trade, said a top government official on Monday.
Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, addressing the 22nd SAARCFINANCE Coordinators’ meeting, urged the SAARC members to further fortify regional cooperation, especially in the areas of banking and finance to facilitate the regional trade.
SAARCFINANCE is network of central bank governors and finance secretaries of the SAARC region.
Wathra, who’s also the network’s chairman, said five areas for cooperation have been identified, which will ultimately work as a roadmap for the network.
These include reducing the transaction costs of cross-border remittances in the SAARC region and cross-border trade.
SBP Governor informed the participants about the initiatives taken by the network, such as the availability of short-term liquidity for members under the SAARC swap arrangement; capacity building programs for officials; online interaction; the creation of regional statistical database and collaborative research studies.
“These initiatives are beneficial in fostering closer relationships and building human capability in practical fields of central banking amongst SAARC partners,” he said.
Chairman Wathra hoped that these areas for mutual cooperation will help build a clear mandate for future cooperation among the members.
Representatives of regional central banks and ministries of finance and foreign affairs attended the meeting.
The meeting was primarily aimed at reviewing the progress of SAARCFINANCE activities and to prepare the draft agenda for the forthcoming 31st SAARCFINANCE group meeting, which will be held alongside the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Lima, the capital of Peru during October 9–11.
The meeting was followed by the business session chaired by Deputy Governor SBP Riaz Riazuddin.
The session reviewed implementation of the decisions made at the 30th SAARCFINANCE group meeting held in Dhaka on 12 June, 2015; the progress and update regarding the collaborative research studies by member central banks; a review of the developments regarding the statistical database; deliberation on the five areas for regional cooperation; transfer of the network’s chair to the central bank of Sri Lanka during the next group meeting and framing of agenda for the next group meeting.