September 15, 2003	Monday	Rajab 17, 1424

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NEW DELHI, Sept 14: Leading businessmen from India and Pakistan launched an India-Pakistan CEOs’ Business Forum on Sunday and set up a website to facilitate future bilateral trade, which they hoped could grow exponentially despite the obvious political obstacles.

Mr Amin Hashwani, managing director of the Karachi-based Hashwani Group of Companies, will officiate as the co-chairman of the forum and Mr Hari S. Bhartia, chairman of the Delhi-based Jubilant Organosys Ltd., will be his Indian counterpart.

A dozen Pakistani businessmen, most of them accompanied by their wives, arrived on Saturday to set up the forum which has the blessing of the governments of the two countries.

The three-day meeting is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the global Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) which had representatives from both countries.

Mr Hashwani recalled that the YPO meetings were successful despite serious differences between the countries the businessmen came from.

“As we discuss the India-Pakistan problems here, I cannot help thinking of the Israelis and the Arabs, the Greeks and the Turks as well as Indian and Pakistani businessmen who all work with each other in the forum with hardly any problem whatsoever,” he said.

CII President Anand Mahindra, also vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, India’s leading jeep makers, recalled that the firm was originally called Mahindra & Mohammed. It was set up in 1945 with Mr Ghulam Mohammed as the other partner, who went on to become Pakistan’s first finance minister. All the businessmen felt that the current India-Pakistan official trade of around $250m was not a true reflection of the potential between the two countries.