KARACHI, Aug 25: There is an urgent need to open up India-Pakistan border for trade between both the countries which are presently trading through a third country. Both the countries are paying higher freight.

Similarly, the visa rules should also be relaxed for the promotion of trade and business between the two countries. Once the business communities of both the countries start interacting and have close collaboration with each other, these will ultimately transform into joint ventures and will be beneficial for both the nations.

These were the general feelings and observations of members of the Indian textile delegation during their meeting with members of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Sindh-Balochistan zone) held here on Wednesday.

The delegation members, headed by Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (India) chairman Rakesh Mehra, expressed their desire in developing direct trade links between the two countries.

The vice-chairman of the SRTEPC, who mostly spoke on behalf of the delegation, said direct trade links would be beneficial for both the governments as well as for the end-consumers who would be paying less.

He said the purpose of the visit was to establish business contacts, explore possibilities of joint venture and strengthen business relations between Indian and Pakistani textile industries.

"My name is Prem which means love and we have come with love and affection to reciprocate the visit paid by Pakistani textile delegation headed by Dewan Muhammad Ayub Khalid in May/June," he added.

Therefore, he said the challenges and opportunities in the quota-free market era should be faced jointly instead of competing with each other and causing damage to both the sides.

He further said that areas of mutual benefit and cooperation in the post-quota era should be identified in order to better understand each others textile industry.

Prem Malik said: "We know the strength of Pakistani textile industry which contributes 65 per cent to exports and 40 per cent to employment." He said the Indian textile industry was exceptionally good in manufacturing core yarns of 120 to 140 counts and had a huge industry based on man-made fibre which was still growing.

The importance of countries like Pakistan, India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey was growing but it was important to note that only those countries would be able to sustain who would ensure lesser cost of production. Therefore, he said compared to Turkey and Brazil, the cost of manufacturing in Pakistan and India was less.

Mr Prem disclosed that synthetic fibre changed the complex of Indian textile industry and its demand rose to around 57 to 58 per cent. However, he said the per capita consumption of fabric in both the countries was amongst the lowest in the world and stood at around 18 square metre or 2.5 kg per annum compared to world's average of 5.8 kg and highest at 9 kg.

However, he said that this consumption could improve if the textile industry of both the countries diversify their products and already there were sign of change in consumption pattern which was more conspicuous amongst youth.

Unlike in the past, Mr Prem said there was a great change in life style and people did not want to depend on one dress. He expressed the hope that by the year 2010, the per capita consumption would rise from 18 metre to 32 metre. Mr Prem stressed the need for a regional trade agreement between India and Pakistan to face the WTO challenges.

He said at present Indian share in the quota market was only three per cent and that of Pakistan was 1.5 per cent, and if the same was compared with China and Hong Kong it was a very meagre share.

Giving details about the roadmap of the Indian textile industry for 2010, he said from the present market size of around $38 billion, India exported 26 per cent and consumed 74 per cent. However, six years from now, the market size would grow to $85 billion, out of which local consumption would be 62 per cent and exports 38 per cent, he added.

He disagreed with a point that Indian textile industry enjoyed some benefit or relief in the form of taxes or rebates. On the contrary, Mr Prem said, the industry was presently exporting its taxes as well because whatever paid towards government taxes, particularly of state taxes, was never received back.

Mr Prem was particular to say that on the contrary situation in Pakistan was much comfortable as there was no provincial taxes and above all system was more advance and developed than that of Indian tax system.

The ten-member Indian delegation includes: Abdul Sattar Siddick Khatri, Ambuj A. Kasliwal, Aziz Amaluddin Valiulla, G.L. Lath, R.L. Toshniwal, Sanjeev Saran, Srinarain D. Aggarwal and V.K. Ladia.