With trade being the new focus area for India and Pakistan, the Indian High Commission here organised a maiden special workshop today to familiarise the country's business community with the liberalised visa regime.
"In the recent past, there has been a significant increase of travel from Pakistan to India. This is a trend which began in 2004 and on the whole continued up to the present," Indian High Commissioner T C A Raghavan said.
The mission is aiming for easier and faster processing of visa applications and will incorporate biometric technology to the web-based process in coming months, he said.
There have been new trends in visa applications related to the "broader interface developing between India and Pakistan", he said.
"What we noticed was a substantial increase, both in terms of business visa applications we receive and the number of business visas that we issue," Raghavan told the workshop.
"We found that in contrast to the situation a few years ago, we are receiving applications from all over Pakistan," he said, adding small and medium enterprises are keen to make the most of new opportunities.
The workshop, which focussed on the visa process and dos and don'ts, was attended by representatives of several chambers of commerce.
Addressing them, Janesh, First Secretary (Consular, Passports and Visa), said everyone's effort "should be making bridges of cooperation and prosperity" between the two sides.
The Pakistani business community used the opportunity to clear doubts and suggest steps for easier travel. Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baglay answered queries.
India is organising "The India Show" in Lahore next month to boost bilateral trade and investment. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will visit Pakistan for the trade fair.
Bilateral trade, which is worth about USD 2 billion a year, is governed by a negative list regime that allows commerce in all but 1,209 items.
