Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) on Wednesday urged State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to facilitate transaction processing in Pak-Afghan trade to avoid declining quantum.
The demand was made during an urgent meeting to deliberate the solution with State Bank of Pakistan, said a press release issued here on Wednesday.
PAJCCI held several stakeholder meetings across the country to identify issues and potential of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan in last six months. The meetings were held with different trade bodies, private stakeholders across the border and government functionaries.
After change of regime in Afghan in August 2021 and international sanctions, banking channel in Afghanistan collapsed resulting in several difficulties in trade payments. During the meeting the participants were informed that the issue of reluctance shown by commercial banks in processing third party payments in context of Afghanistan was critically affecting the conduct of business, despite significant demand from different business segments from Afghanistan. Additionally difficulty in obtaining E-forms for CIS countries was limiting businesses to reap opportunities available.—APP
