ISLAMABAD:Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Asian Pacific andAfrican Affairs of Indonesia, Abdul Kadir Jailani on Thursday saidthat the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) platform can playan effective role in economic integration as well as economicrelations in the Islamic world.
The OIC also promotes political, diplomatic, cultural and economicco-operation among Islamic countries, bringing them closer together,he expressed these views during an exclusive interview with APP afterattending OIC meeting here at Parliament House, Islamabad.
By increasing economic and trade cooperation, the Islamic countries ofdifferent regions of the world can provide major opportunities formutual economic and investment.He said that Pakistan and Indonesia are the two largest Islamiccountries in terms of population with a combined population of 500million, which is a potential market for economic and tradecooperation and could open new avenues for bilateral economiccooperation.
Bilateral trade volume between the two countries is $2.6 billion,which is likely to increase further in the near future, he said.The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs said that both sides areworking to enhance bilateral economic, trade, diplomatic, politicaland cultural cooperation, and new avenues of cooperation will open upin this regard in the future.
He said that Indonesia could provide Pakistan with opportunities fortrade and economic activities in the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEANs) market with a population of 750 million, which wouldenhance the growth of trade between the two countries.Indonesia can be a gateway for Pakistan in ASEAN countries in thisregard, he said.
The Deputy Foreign Minister said that ASEAN is currently an emergingeconomic bloc in the world economically and commercially with freetrade and other agreements with various countries including China andPacific Asia through which Pakistan can reap the benefits throughIndonesia.
He said that Pakistan and Indonesia already have a preliminaryagreement on the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), which has boostedbilateral trade in various sectors.Talks are underway between the two sides to promote trade between thetwo countries, which cannot be ruled out in the future as the FreeTrade Agreement (FTA) will be signed between the two countries.He said that after signing of the FTA ,bilateral trade and economicactivities between both of the countries will be increased.Answering a question about the current situation in Afghanistan andthe role of the OIC, he said that in order to control the currentsituation in Afghanistan, the Islamic countries discussed the futurecourse of action on Afghanistan in the OIC meeting and stressed uponon implementation of the decisions.
He said that in this regard, an economic package for Afghanistan’seconomic and social stability has also been discussed and it has beendecided to set up an �OIC Trust for Afghanistan.�
Read Top Stories
Abdul Kadir Jailani said that the OIC has also decided to appoint aspecial envoy to Afghanistan, who would keep the OIC member statesinformed of the situation in Afghanistan from time to time.Talking about the promotion of tourism in Pakistan and Indonesia, hesaid that there are many opportunities for the promotion andcooperation of tourism in both the countries and tourism is animportant sector of Indonesia’s economy.
He said that Pakistan is a very beautiful country and it is rich innatural beauty as there are witnessed some beautiful views of nature .For the promotion of tourism in Pakistan, he said Indonesia willcooperate in every possible way to promote the tourism sector in bothof the countries.
He said that regular awareness was needed for the promotion of tourismin the two countries, for which people-to-people contacts on bothsides would have to be enhanced.Responding to another question, he said that the development ofbilateral economic and trade relations is of utmost importance tostrengthen the ties between Pakistan and Indonesia.At the same time, he said that the exchange of business delegationsbetween the two countries will provide an opportunity for both sidesto understand each other, which will introduce new dimensions to thefuture of bilateral economic relations.
He said that cooperation between education institutions at both sideswould also enhance the bilateral relations.He said that Pakistan and Indonesia are large countries with youthpopulation in which cooperation of both the countries is veryimportant for providing education and skills to the young population.He said that the world is now in a geo-economic mood and there is aneed for economic diplomacy between Pakistan and Indonesia.He said that there are various economic and political challenges inIslamic countries which need to be tackled.
Regarding the development of economic and trade relations betweenPakistan and Indonesia, he said that he was very optimistic in thisregard and it needed more attention in many sectors.