To diversify and expand the bilateral trade basket between India and Afghanistan, an interactive session was held here recently.
It was conducted by the Federation of Indian Export Organisation, and the aim of the conference was to show new ways to enhance trade and investment in war-torn Afghanistan.
The conference was attended by senior government officials, Indian exporters and students.
India has been an active trading partner with Afghanistan for decades. India's export to Afghanistan amounted to USD 500- 700 million in the financial year 2013-2014. Import from Afghanistan increased by 26 percent.
Afghan Ambassador to India, Shaida Abdali, stated at the meeting that economic development can only establish peace and stability in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Abdali emphasized the historic relations between India and Afghanistan, and said:"The trade ties between India and Afghanistan are increasing; you can see today how keen are the business organisations to go and open their business in Afghanistan. I think it is on a high trajectory. I am very optimistic that with the shared vision that we have between Afghanistan and India we have to work not only at the bilateral level to promote the business ties between the two countries but also work for the regional integration and economic cooperation."
More From This Section
Abdali added: "Afghanistan is playing a very crucial role to connect not only with India but to connect India with Central Asia and of course with other countries in the region. I am very optimistic that our business ties will go higher and higher."
Abdali said that during his interaction with the business people he saw lot of interest which made him hopeful that India and Afghanistan trade ties will expand .
India hopes to increase trade with Afghanistan through Chabahar port in Iran that connects with the Central Asian countries and will build better connectivity and bring down the transit time and cost.
To facilitate trade activities with Afghanistan, India will be opening a business consulate in Kolkata and commercial office in Amritsar.
Ajay Sahai, Director General, Federation of Indian Export Organisation, said: "We organized this session basically to impart more knowledge in trade and industry about the emerging potential in Afghanistan in the wake of the facts that India's exports to Afghanistan are declining and the bilateral trade has also not shown the promise which it has."
Sahai said that the session was basically a kind of sensitization programme for the trade and industry so that they can look into the emerging opportunities and benefit India's trade with these emerging opportunities.
Indian exporters, who participated in the programme, were optimistic about tapping the untapped market in Afghanistan.
" We know that the market is big in Afghanistan especially for the medical products so we want to get into the country and to expand our business," said Nitin Jindal, Director, Jindal Medi Surge.
India's is keen to play a significant role in the development of the war-ravaged country. (ANI)
.