September 16, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1424

New Delhi, Sept 15: The first meeting of the newly set-up India-Pakistan CEOs’ Forum said on Monday that businessmen from both sides had identified four key areas of cooperation, including possible joint ventures in the manufacturing sector.

Mr Anand Mahindra, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which hosted the first meeting of the group on Sunday, identified the four areas of cooperation as trade and investment; manufacturing; services — health, education and entertainment; and communication for building positive perceptions.

He also announced the proposed setting up of a Pakistan-India CEOs’ Forum based in Pakistan for which businessmen from India would travel there within six months.

The first session of CEOs’ Forum entitled “Exploring possibilities and managing expectations” had brought together CEOs from both countries in a wide ranging and fruitful discussions on the future of economic and trade cooperation between India and Pakistan,” Mr Mahindra said.

Co-chairing the meeting were, Amin Hashwani from Pakistan and Hari Bhartia from India. This session had eleven members of the Pakistani team and an equally strong Indian squad.

The discussion was interactive, cordial, free and frank and the group agreed on setting up a sustained and committed process,” Mr Mahindra said. The group agreed that the two countries must target substantial increase in trade to be achieved in coming years.

Mr Mahindra underlined the need for openness and honesty in the debates to follow.

Suketu Shah, leader of the India-Pakistan peace initiative within the forum, explained the context behind the forum and how thriving trade could act as an incentive for peace and cooperation.

Elaborating on the proposed initiative on “trade and investment”, Mr Hashwani, the leader of the Pakistan delegation and the co-chairperson of the forum, said that interaction was informative and fruitful.

He said that the forum underlined the need for increased trade and business relations between the two countries. Multinational corporations were unable to use India and Pakistan as manufacturing bases, and this has kept foreign investment in the region at a low level.

Mr Hashwani said there were technical skills on both sides that complement each other, which were largely unutilized and not being leveraged to their full potential. He emphasized that tourism has another potential sector and that air, road and rail links need to be restored without any delay. He also reported that the group wanted an enlargement of tradable goods between the two countries.

“It is important for the forum to ensure that local industry in both countries does not feel threatened by the growth in trade as it would only help both countries become low cost economies,” Mr Mahindra said.

Mr Bhartia said that by working together the two countries could develop a strong manufacturing base. He listed a set of five industries that the forum decided to take up immediately for mutual cooperation. These five sectors are those where India and Pakistan have complementary skills and resources. In textiles, India’s strengths were in the production and processing of long staple cotton, while and Pakistan’s in short and medium staple cotton.

The sugar industry, the automobile industry, chemicals and the pharmaceutical industry were the other important sectors where the two countries must work together.

Mr Mahindra and Mr Hashwani then underlined the need to effectively communicate and create positive perceptions about each other in both countries. They announced that the meeting ended on “a most satisfying note” with both groups realizing that in order to promote sustainable business links, an environment of mutual trust and respect must prevail at all levels and appealed to both governments to take concrete measures in that direction.

The next meeting of the forum will be held in Pakistan.