A 27-member Pakistani business delegation reached New Delhi on Thursday to attend a two-day seminar aimed at improving trade relations between the two countries.
India's External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha will inaugurate the seminar on July 7. The third India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry seminar beginning is being organized by FICCI.
Pakistan's new High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmad Khan, who took charge this week, will also address the seminar.
The importance of the seminar lies in the fact that the Indian authorities took no time to issue visas to such a huge Pakistan delegation.
About 70 more businessmen are expected to cross the borders at Wagah in Punjab on Friday and reach Delhi the same day by road, an official of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. Overall, about 125 Pakistani businessmen are likely to attend the seminar.
The official said the remaining members of the Pakistan delegation, along with their families, would come by air via Dubai since there was no direct air link between India and Pakistan.
Many of them would stay for a week for detailed business discussions and sightseeing.
FICCI official said: "There was tremendous enthusiasm in the Pakistan business community to get visas and come to India to participate in this seminar. We are equally excited to meet them."
The seminar will focus on the normalisation of economic ties between India and Pakistan, he said.
FICCI will urge Pakistan to extend the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India in order to facilitate economic relations, the official said. India has already given this status to Pakistan.
About 150 representatives of almost all major Indian business houses are expected to participate in the seminar, he said.
Some big-shot business tycoons from the Pakistan include Iftikhar Ali Mallik, Sheikh Jamil Mehboob Magoon and Ilyas Ahmed Bilour.
Apart of one-to-one and business-to-business meetings with Indian businessmen, the visiting Pakistan delegation will also get an opportunity to meet government officials in Delhi.
The ministry of commerce and industries will also host a dinner in their honour.
"We will request them to expand the list of tradable commodities which is currently restricted to 600," he said.
"The major problem is lack of infrastructure. There is no direct travel link between Indian and Pakistan. We want the air, rail and road traffic to resume."
He said due to certain restrictions, unofficial trade between India and Pakistan was100 times more than the legal trade.
The official said: "Many Indian goods are imported by Pakistan through some other country instead of direct import. This increases the cost of the product and also benefits middlemen."
"We want to put pressure for re-modification of the policy. The seminar is basically to reinforce the desire of businessmen who want genuine trade between India and Pakistan."
India and Pakistan have an official annual trade of around $200 million, but exports through third countries total nearly $1 billion. Experts say trade could rise to nearly $4 billion if the two countries start trading with each other directly.
"We will identify the impediments that hamper better trade relations between the two countries. We will look into various sectors of business where enormous potential exists in both the countries," the official said.
He said there were possibilities of a joint recommendation at the end of the seminar, suggesting ways to improve trade relations.
He said: "If not a joint recommendation, then we will give separate recommendations to both the governments (to improve trade ties)."
The seminar also coincides with the resumption of the bus service between Delhi and Lahore after 18 months. The service, which was stopped after the attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001, is likely to resume on July 11.
