PESHAWAR, May 02 (Online): In order to increase its economic influence in Afghanistan Pakistan has announced opening twelve trade routes with Afghanistan for enhancing trade and economic cooperation.
A senior official of Central Board of Revenue M D Tahir told BBC that the opening of ten routes along the Afghan border would raise the total number to twelve and will help businessmen to get easy access to Afghan market.
According to him besides Chaman and Torkham and Ghulam Khan, another three trade routes have already started functioning while six more routes would very soon begin trade activities.
The step has been widely appreciated by Pakistani and Afghan businessmen, as they are confident that opening of further routes will further increase Pakistani exports to Afghanistan.
The opening of trade routes is part of reconstruction process launched in Afghanistan following fall of the Taliban government.
Pakistan also desires to reach Central Asia via Afghanistan to get access to Central Asian markets.
It merits mentioning here that Pakistan's export to Afghanistan has already reached one billion dollars.
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