Exporters want trade link through Pakistan

Indian engineering exporters have decided to seek Centre's assistance for opening a land route through Pakistan and Afghanistan to do business with central Asian countries.

In absence of a direct road link, exporters now route their items through Singapore and then to China for shipment to countries like Kazakhstan. As a result, the cost as well as the lead time go up substantially.

The landed price of Indian engineering products went up by $1,000-2,000 per box through the present route.

"While the lead time for Indian exporters is about 40 days, for the Chinese it is only six days," Rakesh Shah, chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), said.

The land route through China, undertaken by multimodal transport companies, is also subject to delays.

The land route through Pakistan and Afghanistan would be much shorter. "We will raise the issue with ministry of external affairs and ministry of commerce," Shah added.

Despite this huge freight disadvantage, exporters were hoping to make a breakthrough in Kazakhstan which had a huge market for engineering goods.

Bilateral trade between the two countries in engineering item was less than $1 million at present. EEPC said this could go up to $ 25 million in this fiscal alone.

Shah said exporters were eager to work on low margins to gain access in the virgin market. However, he warned such practice could not continue for long.

"The need of the hour is to develop brand India and establish our credential of our product there. The EEPC team of 65 enterprises to Kazakhstan for the Indiatech exhibition in Almaty was a success. We managed to do good business," he added.

Since Kazakhstan was rich in mineral resources, EEPC said demand for mining related machinery, oil rigs and non-conventional energy units were likely to be high.