KARACHI: Experts at a seminar on Monday were unanimous in their views that Karachi could become a major hub for transit trade for landlocked and energy rich Central Asian countries in the north and oil rich and capital surplus Middle East to the West with vibrant economies of East Asia having strong appetite for energy.

The seminar was jointly organised by the IRU (Inter­national Road Union), Eco­no­­­mic Cooperation Organi­sation and the Ministry of Commerce. The speakers called for an early ratification of various international conventions, including TIR convention of UN, which facilitates movement of goods through land routes on a guaranteed system.

They urged the government to modernise its trucking policy and also to develop country’s international freight forwarding industry. It was pointed out that trucking modernisation policy was approved by the federal cabinet in 2007. However, it is yet to be implemented.

The objective of this policy was to reform and promote an integrated, enduring and sustainable initiative towards “modernisation of trucking sector in Pakistan.”

The freight forwarding sector was already declared an industry by the government in 2005 to encourage fleet formation by these freight forwarding and other logistics companies. The policy also recommended that trucking sector be declared an industry.

However, so far no such move has been made towards this direction which continues to discourage investment and funding from banking sector to trucking business. A number of international conventions are still pending accession, including land transport conventions, which allow contract for international carriage of goods by road (CMR) of 1956.

Furthermore, the speakers were of the view that customs conventions, including Customs Convention on Containers, 1972, Customs Convention on the Inter­national Transportation of Goods under Cover of TIR carnets (TIR Convention), 1975 also need accession.

Max Ee, representative of USAID in Afghanistan, said that Pakistan is a strategically placed country and is surrounded by huge economies which need transit facilities for movement of goods and to meet their energy needs.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2014