‘Musharraf to win SCO membership for Pakistan’

‘Musharraf to win SCO membership for Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD, February 22 (inp): RIWCCI (Rawalpindi Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry) on Wednesday said that business community is pinning high hopes on President Musharraf’s visit to China as Pakistan is likely to become full member of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) soon.

Musharraf’s vision is driving the economy of Pakistan in the right direction and it’s evident that Pakistan will soon become full member of the grouping founded on 15 June 2001 – including -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the women’s chamber said in a statement.

Due to the positive efforts of the government, Pakistan became an SCO observer during summit meeting that took place at Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana on July 5, 2005.

The member states cover an area of over 30 million km with a population of 1.455 billion which is a big market which cannot be ignored -- as the world economic and energy centres are evolving in these areas.

“The recent meeting of President Pervez Musharraf and the Secretary-General of the SCO, Zhang Deguang have raised hopes among business community as it attaches great importance to the grouping,” said RIWCCI president Samina Fazil, executive vice president Farah Jaweed and vice president Shagufta Zahid in a joint statement.

“We should become a full member of the organization as soon as possible, as a full member we would be able to exploit the opportunities which will boost the nation’s economy.”

China has contributed generously for construction of Gwadar port's first phase, and it will finance the second phase, the business leaders hoped adding that the ever-increasing ties between two countries will help Pakistan to act as a transit point for China and will give it access to the markets and energy resources of Central Asia.

They appreciated the 19 agreements and Memorandums of Understanding worth $500 million that were signed between private sectors of Pakistan and China yesterday.

“Following the full membership in the SCO, Pakistan economy will get unprecedented promotion in almost every area, especially energy, nuclear cooperation, real estate development, mass transit, communications, chemical, fertilizer, auto-mobile, pharma, cement and agro-based and other industries,” the chamber observed.