Kolkata, May 13: A group of Pakistan national assembly members today felt the need for personal level interaction between the business communities of India and Pakistan to help increase bilateral trade. The group identified a huge potential for trade between the two countries in tea, copper and textiles, besides tourism and cultural ties.
"The best thing that can happen under the present circumstances is chamber to chamber interaction between the countries," Muslim League (Qaid-e-Azam) MNA M P Bhandara said at an interaction here with select senior members of the Indian chambers.
"But as the chambers of commerce in Pakistan are not that organised, I feel personal interaction by the members of Indian chambers with their counterparts will be helpful in increasing bilateral trade between the two countries," he said.
Stating that there was a lot of scope to improve bilateral trade between the two countries, Bhandara said trade between the neighbours was currently routed through Dubai.
"If direct relations can be developed, there is possibility of overall business increasing significantly in the coming year," he said.
"In next 10 to 15 years there is going to be a big market for tea in Pakistan. Indian producers can work towards getting a considerable share of the emerging market," he said.
"I don't know whether India will be interested in importing copper from Pakistan as we have good deposit of the metal" he said.
Bureau Report