Pak's business team arrives in India

WAGAH (Indo-Pak Border): A 51-member team of Pakistanis, including 38 business delegates, crossed over to India from the Wagah border, on Friday morning.
The team, led by Pak senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, will study the prospects of improving business relations between two countries.
The team is here at the invitation of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) as a part of Track II diplomacy to undertake confidence-building measures between the peoples of the two countries in the wake of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s offer to make peace with that country.
Another about one hundred business delegates from Pakistan are likely to arrive in Delhi from Dubai on July 5 to join the delegation.
At Wagah, the business delegates were received by Krishan Kant, additional general secretary, FICCI, Vinit Virmani and other FICCI representatives including Abhinav Kanchan and Anil Khanna. A group of businessmen from Amritsar also formed a part of the welcoming team.
Talking to mediapersons, Bilour said that healthy trade relations between India and Pakistan would not only bring the people of both countries together but also help ease political tension between two countries. He said that the volume of trade between two countries was estimated to be two billion US dollars, involving goods such as chemicals, industrial machinery, cement, tyres, tea, medicines, video tapes, cosmetics and viscose fibre. He added that that these goods found their way either through third markets, such as Dubai and Singapore, or through smuggling.
Infrastructural bottlenecks like lack of road trade routes, irregular railway traffic and an expensive shipping were some the reasons that Bilour cited for such unofficial trade. He said India and Pakistan were key players in SAARC and improvement in bilateral relations would boost both bilateral and regional trade.
Azhar Saeed Butt, chairman, All Pakistan Traders Association, said that the team had high hopes from their visit and meetings with Indian business delegates and the foreign minister.
‘‘This time, it appears as if the politicians of both countries are keen on re-establishing business links,’’ said Azhar, who was accompanied by his wife Farah and daughter Aiysha .
M Iqbal, president, Pakistan Dry Dates Exporters Association, Sukkur, said that India and Pakistan could cooperate in the field of agriculture. The food and agri business industry had a significant impact on the regional economy, he said. The business delegates, who left for Delhi later, would visit Agra before joining taking part in a meeting of the ‘‘Third Executive Committee’’ of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on July 6.