Iran ready to provide electricity: joint shipping company proposed

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Iran ready to provide electricity: joint shipping company proposed
RECORDER REPORT
ISLAMABAD (October 08 2008): Iranian Ambassador Mashallah Shakiri said that his country was ready to provide electricity to Pakistan and the Iranian government had adequate capacity to carry out development projects. Shakiri also proposed to establish Pak-Iran Joint Shipping Company that would enhance connectivity leading to increase in bilateral trade.

He said this during a meeting with Deputy Chairman Planning Commission (PC), Salman Faruqui. The two sides agreed that bilateral co-operation in various sectors of economy like energy, railways, roads and trade would be enhanced.

The Iranian envoy apprised that Iran was already working on Sahara hydel power project on the river Chenab and had raised its capacity from initially proposed generation capacity of 65 mega watts to 130 MW through Independent Power Producers (IPPs). He said that the present volume of trade between the two countries showed that the bilateral trade potential was untapped. The volume of trade between Iran and other regional countries is significantly higher than trade between Pakistan and Iran.

According to him, one of the main problems was lack of physical as well as institutional connectivity between the two countries. He also showed his country's interest in enhancing the co-operation in banking sector by opening up branches of banks in each other's countries on reciprocal basis.

Deputy Chairman PC said that Pakistan was interested in importing electricity from Iran as Pakistan was currently facing power shortage. He suggested bilateral negotiations to work out the modalities related to pricing and transmission. He appreciated the proposal to establish a Joint Shipping Company to boost maritime co-operation and mutual trade and promised to examine the proposal. Pakistan National Shipping Company (PNSC) would be asked to look into this matter, he further said.

Faruqui also underlined the importance of modern railroad between Quetta and Taftan. For this purpose, he said that funds could be raised together with Iran and by using the forum of Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) or Islamic Bank. Both the sides agreed to increase co-operation in health services and pharmaceutical sector as well. Faruqui informed Shakiri that PC had good mutual relationships with its Indian and Chinese counterparts and it wanted the same level of institutional interaction with its Iranian counterpart.

Shikri appreciated this proposal and assured that Iran would welcome this institutional linkage that would further enhance business to business contacts for regional development.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2008