Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Biz group aims to boost India-Pakistan ties

Private businesses in Pakistan and India want to take the lead in normalising relations between the two arch rivals for bilateral economic benefit, a leading Pakistani industrialist said on Friday.

Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, the president of the Indo-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a body representing business communities in both countries, said only economic ties could lead to political dialogue between the countries.

"We want to take the lead in the private sector to normalise relations with India -- let's start with business -- it is in the interest of both countries," Bilour told Reuters in a telephone interview from Peshawar, in Pakistan.

Bilour was speaking on the eve of a visit by a 35-member delegation from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which is due in the Pakistani capital Islamabad at the weekend for an IPCCI meeting scheduled from May 21 to 24.

The IPCCI was formed during a ground-breaking visit by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore in 1999 to seek peace between the two nuclear-capable neighbours.

But soon after the visit, India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, came close to a fourth war after pro-Pakistan guerrillas occupied strategic Indian-held areas in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

RISING TENSION

Rising tension between the two countries has pushed the IPCCI into the background.

Until now, the body has only met once since being formed two years ago.

Bilour said: "We (the IPCCI) wish that political leaders of both sides resolve the five-decade old disputes between us (India and Pakistan),."

"I think the IPCCI can play a positive role in this endeavour," he added.

He said efforts must be made to cut Pakistan's trade deficit with India by bringing smuggled goods in via legal channels.

The FICCI said unofficial trade between the two countries was five times the official figure of about Rs 7 billion ($149.2 million) and that Pakistan loses about $500 million annually in customs duty.

"We would recommend to the commerce ministry to lower duties on items being smuggled in from India so that Pakistan could also earn some revenues from it," Bilour said.

He added that if trade links with India were normalised, Pakistani businesses could benefit from cheaper freight charges and access to a massive market of one billion people.

Tell us what you think of this report