Chaudhry Shafique chairs the first meeting of the committee on collaboration with Afghanistan

Lahore: The first meeting of the committee on collaboration with Afghanistan was held at Punjab Board of Investment and Trade(PBIT) office, today. The meeting was chaired by Minister Industries, Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique and attended by Irfan Ilahi Chairman Planning & Development, Arif Anwar Baloch Secretary Industries, Mohammad Ilyas Ghauri, Chief Executive Officer PBIT and representatives of other government departments.

Due to economic complementarities between Afghanistan and Punjab, many possible areas of collaboration were discussed to be part of economic development of Afghanistan. It was stressed that there is need to develop strong business-to-business relations between Afghanistan and Punjab. The Committee shall convene meetings and submit detailed report to Chief Minister on areas of cooperation and way forward on Afghanistan and Punjab collaboration.

It is worth mentioning that Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani met on 15^th November 2014, in which many key points were discussed regarding the Punjab’s role in development of Afghanistan. Both the leaders agreed to declare Lahore and Kabul sister cities as well. One of the key decisions taken was to establish a Committee of Collaboration between Afghanistan and Punjab.