FICCI team to visit Pak in May

To reap the benefits following India and Pakistan governments' decision to further bilateral trade ties, a high-powered 70-member delegation of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry led by President Onkar S Knwar would visit the neighbouring country from May 23.

During the six day trip, the delegation would call on Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan and the governors and chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab, FICCI said in a release.

"The deliberations in Pakistan will strive to go into the nitty gritty of augmenting business cooperation between the two countries and formulate a road map for removing the infrastructural bottlenecks and improving policy environment," Kanwar said.

The visit is aimed at ensuring that bilateral trade and economic cooperation are enhanced and the launch of South Asian Free Trade Area speeded up to bolster India-Pakistan trade to $5 billion from the current level of $400 million, he said.

"We are hopeful that the one-to-one business meetings would fructify into several firm and concrete partnerships between the two sides," he added.

The business communities of both countries would impress upon the policy makers of Pakistan that the two governments should put in place an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement whereby joint ventures could be operationalised.