Businessmen hopeful of Indo-Pak trade touching $10 billion in 2 yrs

MUMBAI: Businessmen from India and Pakistan are hopeful that with a little push from their respective governments, the bilateral trade can jump five-fold to USD 10 billion in the next two years.

"If Pakistan can make a negative list, instead of the present positive list and some of the trade barriers are lifted by both the countries, bilateral trade can easily touch USD 10 billion in the next two years," a senior official of industry body Ficci, which is organising Pakistani Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim's visit, told PTI.

In 2000, the bilateral trade was only USD 200 million, which, in 10 years rose to USD1.86 billion in 2010, he pointed out.

He was talking after a closed-door meeting that Fahim had with the top honchos of India Inc at the Taj Hotel.

Incidentally, Fahim is staying at the iconic hotel, which was one of the targets of the brazen 26/11 terror attack by Pakistani terrorists three years ago. Earlier in the afternoon he was accorded a reception at the hotel by Ficci President Harsh Mariwala.

Fahim began his four-day visit to the country from the nation's financial capital as the two countries try to bury their hatred-driven political history and try to put greater focus on bilateral trade.

Terming the meeting as "highly productive", the Ficci official said, the meeting agreed on the need to liberalise trade ties, and also to create more awareness between the two nations on trade relations. Pakistani businessmen expressed their keenness to increase trade ties with India, he added.