Punjab fair to beef up trade with Pak

The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry is organising for the first time a trade fair to promote trade between India and Pakistan. The Indo-Pak International Expo-2005 will be held in Amritsar from December 1 to December 4.

The chief minister of Punjab, Amrinder Singh, and the chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab, Chaudhary Pervez Elahi, are likely to inaugurate the event.

The proximity to Pakistan was the reason for choosing Amritsar as the venue, said S C Aggarwal, secretary, industries, Punjab, who is also the chairman of the organising committee, IPEX-2005.

He said 10,000 people from Pakistan were likely to come and many of them would get back by the evening.

He said the event was aimed at disseminating information about business prospects for the entrepreneurs and traders in both the countries as people on both sides of the border have certain apprehensions about the business environment.

"As Punjab would get the maximum advantage of the removal of trade barriers we are taking the initiative," he added. The Punjab government in Pakistan has also agreed to support and extend all possible help to make this event successful and in this connection the principal secretary to CM, Punjab, (Pakistan) had sent an encouraging response through an official letter.

"The chambers of commerce in Pakistan are co-operating with the PHDCCI to ensure the participation of Pakistan exhibitors. We are expecting about 100 exhibitor companies from Pakistan and at least 200 companies from India to participate in this exhibition," said Amarjit Goyal, chairman Punjab Committee, PHDCCI.

Giving a presentation on IPEX 2005, R S Sachdeva, co-chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI, said though bilateral trade between the countries stood at $600 million, the estimated informal trade volume in 2004-05 was $2 billion, which involved goods like chemicals, industrial machinery, cement, tyres, tea, medicine, video tapes, cosmetics and viscose fibre. These goods found their way through third markets such as Dubai and Singapore.

He indicated the indirect trade of $3.5 billion through Dubai and Muscat should be done directly with India, which would help reduce the cost of doing business. He said besides textiles, the trade could be increased in other sectors like tea, coffee, textiles, machinery, chemicals, sports goods, surgical equipment, leather and leather products and iron ore.About IPEX 2005, he said trade exposition would cover all important segments of industry including textiles, IT, pharmaceuticals, food processing, agriculture, automobiles, consumer goods and IT.

He said women entrepreneurs from Pakistan making handicraft items had shown keen interest for the event.

Advocating the need to open trade between two countries, he said that India is the largest tea producer, and Pakistan is the second largest tea consumer in the world but Pakistan imports tea, coffee, pharmaceutical products, consumer durables and liquor from Kenya, Brazil and Australia at a higher per unit import cost because of the barriers. 60 per cent of tea imports to Pakistan is from Kenya, while less than one per cent is imported from India, he added.

He said women entrepreneurs from Pakistan who are making handicraft items have shown keen interest for the event.

Aggarwal said that opening of trade through Wagah border will not only enhance bilateral trade between India and Pakistan but also facilitate and boost India export to other markets beyond Pakistan and Iran. It will give spur to our state industry by saving cost for exporting goods via surface transport enabling us to face the global competition.