India, Pakistan Inc. look forward to joining hands
Monday, 15 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: It will be a win-win affair, says Dewan Yousuf Farooqui, if India and Pakistan shed their differences and begin to trade with each other in a big way. He must know. Farooqui is a leading Pakistani industrialist, now visiting India along with several CEOs and their wives, hoping against hope that leaders of the two countries are thinking on the same lines. "Currently, I source most of the machines used in my industries from South Korea. The machines are very expensive there and I end up spending a huge amount in importing them," said the chief executive of the Karachi-based Dewan Mushtaq Group, which has interests in automobile, textile and sugar industries. "If I get to buy machineries and other equipment from India, it would not only cost me much less, the transport cost and time taken would also be greatly less, boosting my company's overall performance." But Farooqui, like hundreds of his colleagues in Pakistan, just cannot do that because Islamabad maintains a "permissible list" of 600 items that alone can be imported from India. These include chemicals, minerals, cardamom and tyres. And so Farooqui can only keep his fingers crossed - for now. "I have had informal talks with some Indian companies for the purchase of machinery and other equipment." But Farooqui is hopeful. "I am absolutely delighted by the prospects of a formal partnership with them," Farooqui told IANS here. "It will be a win-win situation for both of us." Farooqui is a member of a 12-member Pakistani business delegation that arrived in India Saturday. The delegation, representing a wide spectrum of industrial sectors such as textiles, commodities, agriculture, telecom and pharmaceuticals, is here to take part in the launch of the India-Pakistan CEO's Business Forum. Hari S. Bhartiya, managing director of New Delhi-based Jubilant Organosys, which makes chemicals used by diverse industries like pharmaceuticals, textile and paper, is bullish about the prospects of exports to Pakistan. "Currently we export chemicals to Pakistan in small quantities. But there is a huge demand for speciality chemicals, we can easily become a major player there. "But the absence of a reliable communication link between the two countries is a major roadblock in exporting a wide range of products to Pakistan," said Bhartiya, the co-chairman of India-Pakistan CEO's Business Forum. New Delhi discontinued rail, road and air links with Islamabad after a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 for which India blamed Pakistan. Relations between the two countries have begun to improve after Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered a "hand of friendship" to Islamabad five months ago. "Disruption in air and rail links doesn't help in building a strong relation in trade," said Amin Hashwani, managing director of Karachi-based Hashwani Group of Companies and co-chairman of India-Pakistan CEO's Business Forum. But Hashwani says this is the right time for the business community in the two countries to seize the opportunity, notwithstanding the various roadblocks. "We can actually compliment the efforts of the political leaders in our countries and help Track II diplomacy gain momentum." Track II diplomacy is a non-governmental initiative to foster people-to-people contact. Businessmen from countries are desperate to enhance such measures, as decades of recurring tensions have reduced bilateral trade to abysmally low levels. Trade between India and Pakistan is less than one percent of their global trade. 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 they started trading with each other directly. Industry observers say the increased business-to-business contact between India and Pakistan augured well not only for the economies of both countries but also for their diplomatic relations. "We are not politicians, we are just businessmen and we can't take any major decisions to improve relation," says Farrukh Khan, chief executive officer of Karachi-based BMA Capital Management, a private fund management company. "But if we manage to step up partnerships with each other, it will give a major boost to the overall relation between our two countries." Agrees Anand Mahindra, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII): "At the moment, none of us have raised expectations too high on the bilateral trade front. "We believe that if we create a race in the subcontinent, not an arms race but an economic race, then both countries will greatly benefit. Its time the focus shifts from politics to economics for peace and stability in the region."
Source: IANS
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