Federal minister for commerce and textile industry Engr Khurram Dastagir Khan visiting the India Show at the Lahore Expo Centre on Friday. PHOTO: APP
The second Indian Show kicked off yesterday with Punjab citizens racing towards the Lahore Expo Center to catch a glimpse of the products on display.
Around 120 stalls have been set up to exhibit different Indian products including textiles, gems, jewellery, embroidery, herbal medicine, electric products, paint, designing and engineering.
The India show, displaying products made in the country, is a step taken by both commerce ministries to further improve bilateral trade relations. The business community and citizens expressed hope that more such shows would be organised.
“The commerce ministries of both countries have played their role to enhance bilateral trade and bring it to its maximum under their capacities,” said Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir. “Now, the other ministries and governments should play their due role in improving relations.”
The key to improved bilateral trade is improved relations, said Dastgir, adding that India has stopped composite dialogue that would adversely affect trade. “The commerce ministries could push the trade to a certain level under their capacities which it has achieved.”
“Visa is still the biggest non-tariff barrier (NTB), which needs to be addressed to maximise people-to-people contact between the two countries,” said Dastgir.
“Bilateral trade relations will mutually strengthen the two countries and their populations,” said Dr Jyotsna Suri, head of the Indian delegation and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) vice president.
She said that the potential of bilateral trade can be gauged by the growth, which is almost 25%, over the last three years — still 10 times lower than the potential. Suri stressed the need for the promotion of tourism between the two countries which would boost growth and bring the two nations closer.
Saarc President of Commerce and Industry Chairman Vikramjit S Sahney also stressed the need to establish a trade facilitation centre at the Wagah border where the business community could go and place orders without visas.
He called for increasing the exports to Pakistan through Wagah border and the establishment of a container cargo terminal to increase bilateral trade. He said that the FICCI has proposed to the Indian government to extend the scope of the proposed Amritsar-Kolkata trade corridor to Lahore-Kabul by interconnecting them to reap the fruits of regional prosperity.
Lashari also called for an early establishment of a banking network between India and Pakistan, opening up of borders 24/7, infrastructural facilities and containerisation of cargo at the Wagah border.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2014.
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Frankly the photographic coverage should have been of the Indian products on display and not ++++++++++++++++++++++++ of the Pakistani Minister
@SAL:
You are claiming that seeking trade is the most horrific thing any nation can do !
There is nothing wrong in seeking trade relations, what is wrong is seeking strategic depth and carrying out terror attacks ...you do not seem to have the right priorities in life.
Just watch the face of Dastgeer the Pakistani Minister and compare it with an ordinary Pakistani standing behind the Minister. This is the story of Nawaz League today.
@Beyond Punjab - Pakistan's Punjab has more in common (Language, food, culture etc.) with Indian Punjab (Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pardesh). Trade can be done through Wagah Border. There is nothing in common with UP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karanataka etc..
Why is there such a Punjabi centered focus to India - Pak relations. Pakistanis need to know that there is a lot more to India than Punjabi language, culture and food. More than 95% of Indians have very little to do with Punjab and even in the economic sphere, Punjab's influence is limited primarily to agriculture which is increasingly run by laborers from Bihar. You need to start inviting people from the Hindi heartland (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan etc) and also from the south-west of India (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka etc) cause that's where the economic soul of the country lies.
What I read and see all too often is a bunch of Punjabi journalists who seem to hijack the narrative and give the relationship between the two countries a very 'feel good' Punjabi romance while the rest of the country (India) has never been taken on board. My sincere advise to Pakistanis who want to take the Indians on board on promoting peace and trade would be to start appealing to Indians from beyond Ludhiana/Amritsar/Jalandhar.