NEW DELHI: Indian and Pakistani business leaders said Thursday there were big opportunities to boost direct trade between them after the rival nations agreed to work harder at opening up their markets.
While formal trade between the two most populous and largest economies in South Asia is a paltry $2.7 billion annually, unregulated trade, much of it routed through third countries, is estimated at $10 billion. This informal commerce shows “the tremendous potential for bilateral trade,” said Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry secretary general Rajiv Kumar.
Cross-border commerce currently amounts to less than one percent of each country’s global activity, but the two sides harbour hopes of increased trade in areas such as engineering and textiles.
“There is a large market to be opened up,” said Rajan Bharti Mittal, managing director of India’s Bharti Enterprises, parent of the country’s largest mobile phone operator. The comments came as India’s commerce minister Anand Sharma announced he would lead a trade delegation to Islamabad next February at the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The two agreed in New Delhi late Wednesday to more than double trade within three years to $6 billion, set up a second trade border check post and make it easier for Indians and Pakistanis to get business visas.
Both governments “are committed to normalisation of trade relations,” said Fahim, whose five-day visit at the head of a large business delegation is the first by a commerce minister to India in 35 years. “We’re already trading with each other via third nations. This shows there is a need in both countries for each other’s products,” Bashir Hussain, chief executive of the Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company, said.
India is also eyeing improved trade ties with Pakistan as a way to gain better access to the republics of Central Asia while Pakistan is keen to tap India’s vast market of 1.2 billion people. Fahim’s visit was part of the resumption this year of formal peace talks between India and Pakistan, called the “composite dialogue,” broken off after the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed by Pakistani gunmen. Deepening economic engagement between the two countries, which have fought three wars against each other since independence from Britain in 1947, is seen as crucial to establishing lasting peace in the troubled South Asian region. Afp
India, Pakistan to open bank branches, land routes
NEW DELHI: Visiting Pakistan’s Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said trade and investment relations with India would yield positive results. Addressing India-Pakistan Business Conclave, organised by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), he said bilateral trade between India and Pakistan was expected to flourish and hopefully all non-tariff barriers would be removed soon. These measures will send a positive signal to business communities about sincere intention of the two governments, he added. Fahim said atmosphere of fear and apprehension has reduced considerably and businesspersons in both countries started to believe that governments in both countries were committed to normalise trade ties. On SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area), he said Pakistan wanted to make it an effective and meaningful agreement and hoped unnecessary long sensitive lists of products would be considerably reduced. SAFTA would enter into negotiations with ASEAN to create and bigger block, thus having ASEAN as a partner, on the east and ECOTA, which has Turkey and Central Asia, on the west, he added. Appreciating FICCI’s role in facilitating Pakistani delegates with visas for eight destinations and easing restriction of exit and entry points, he hoped this becomes a permanent facility to encourage Pakistani businessmen to visit India. Anand Sharma, Indian Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister described visit of Fahim as a defining moment in bilateral trade ties. The government-to-government talks and dialogue between businessmen of two sides was marked by freshness, frankness, he said adding if such openness persists it would send a powerful message not only in South Asian region but to the entire world. Ppi
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