Officials of Turkmenistan and Pakistan in an online meeting on Thursday agreed to strengthen bilateral economic and trade cooperation in different potential sectors for broadening the trade connectivity between the countries, the Pakistan-based Daily Times newspaper reports.
The second meeting of Pakistan-Turkmenistan Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade was held via video link on Thursday.The Pakistani side was led by Additional Secretary (Trade Diplomacy) of Ministry of Commerce Humair Karim while the Turkmen side was led by Merdan Annaguliyev, the Head of Department for the Foreign Economic Relations of Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations.
The virtual meeting was attended by senior government officials from both countries.
Humair Karim in his opening statement expressed his gratitude to hold the meeting and stated that Pakistan and Turkmenistan have long standing diplomatic and commercial relations and the Government of Pakistan attaches huge importance to its relations with Turkmenistan.
In turn, Merdan Annaguliyev also expressed his pleasure on holding the JWG meeting on trade and on the interest of Pakistan to enhance trade relations with Turkmenistan. He reciprocated the same desire from the Government of Turkmenistan.
During the meeting, the sides undertook to work on mutual cooperation in sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, banking sector, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and trade dispute resolution.
The officials also agreed to establish joint chamber of commerce and industry, exchange information on trade, tariff and regulatory regimes and exchange delegations of professionals and businessmen from information technology sector.
In a meeting in early January, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Pakistan Atajan Movlyamov and Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood agreed that the bilateral trade between the countries was below its true potential and resolved to increase the volume.