LAHORE, Feb 1: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday said it was "ready to help Pakistan boost its exports" to India as well as other parts of the globe.
"We are prepared to provide you every help needed to boost the export of your products if you would agree to it," CII deputy director-general S. Sen, who is heading a 24-member business delegation to Pakistan, told a gathering of local businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
In this regard, he said, the CII was ready to help Pakistan in organizing an exhibition of its products in India. Mr Sen also called upon governments of India and Pakistan to open Wagah border for trade. "This step would go a long way in boosting bilateral trade between the two neighbours.
He asked the LCCI to collaborate with the CII to help promote the Vintage Car Rally, which is planned from New Delhi to Lahore early next month. He invited Pakistani businessmen to participate in the international engineering and technology fair being held in New Delhi from Feb 9 to 12.
South Africa is participating in the fair as partner country. The fair will have focussed shows on aqua, environment, biotech, manufacturing, office solutions, partmart & autocare, etc.
Mr Sen said the visit of CII delegation would help bridge the information gap between the two countries and build confidence. He said India and Pakistan should have more flights and establish a strong banking network in order to improve their trade and business relations.
He said the two countries were growing rapidly at about six per cent a year, and that it was right time for them to forge business and trade partnership for escalating the current growth rate in the years to come.
Without naming the Kashmir or Baglihar Dam issues, he said there were many issues and challenges (blocking trade relations between Pakistan and India). "We in the CII feel that these issues and challenges need to be resolved at the earliest to allow unhindered trade between the two countries."
Mr Sen said trade between the two neighbours was moving upward, but slowly. The current bilateral official trade is about $345 million. "It can go up to $5 billion by 2008 if right steps are taken and we continue our dialogues to create a better environment," he said.
The CII official said direct trade between the two countries should be increased to reduce the cost of products coming from the third country. He said both India and Pakistan must work together in order to help Saarc move towards Safta.
He said the businessmen should explore the possibilities of setting up joint ventures in India and Pakistan as it would help in building confidence between the two nations.
He was of the view that industry and commerce could play a major role in confidence building and bringing people closer to each other. He said regular dialogue and exchange of visits between economic journalists, academia, business persons, etc., should be facilitated for a long-term relationship.
Earlier, Pakistani business leaders urged India to resolve the longstanding Kashmir and Baglihar issues, as these were the major snag in the way of improvement of trade relations between the two countries.
They said official trade could go up to $10 billion by 2010 if these issues were resolved and necessary steps taken by the two governments. Later, the CII and the LCCI signed an MoU for future cooperation. The CII delegation members also held one-to-one meetings with their counterparts.