M. Balasubramanian (left) president, Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry, greeting Shahib Malik, Pakistan High Commissioner in India, at a meeting on ‘Business and Trade Relationship Between India and Pakistan: Opportunities Ahead’ in Chennai on Friday.
CHENNAI: “The Governments of India and Pakistan are seriously talking about reviewing the visa policy,” Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahib Malik said on Friday.
Top officials of both nations are talking about how to liberalise the visa policy, and once that takes place, there will hopefully be an inclusion of visas for tourist purposes in a limited sense, Mr. Malik added. He also hinted that there might be certain concessions for senior citizen visas. Till now, though no tourist visas were being issued, visas were being given under other categories, including business, without any problems.
He was delivering a talk on “Business and trade relationship between India and Pakistan: Opportunities Ahead” organised by the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
About 10 years ago, Mr. Malik said, the number of visas issued per annum did not cross the 20,000 mark. Today, the number was close to 1,00,000, he added. Pointing out that there had been a sea change in interaction, he said the important thing was that both sides were talking to each other and seeing how relations, economic and political, could be taken forward.
Though there was undoubtedly good progress in bilateral trade relations, a lot of ground still had to be covered to reach the real potential of economic cooperation. The recent positive trends in bilateral relations needed to be sustained in consonance with the objectives clearly spelt out in the SAFTA agreement.
Some Indian businessmen believed that improvement of economic relations would lead to better relations on the political front as well. The underlying assumption was that in today’s world, economic factors were the main drivers of political relations.
There was also the view that while in the short run the nations would witness an improvement in bilateral economic interaction, the sustainability of such progress could only be ensured in an atmosphere of political harmony. “We look forward to both countries resolving differences and disputes, so that both can create an atmosphere which fosters, without any fear or anxiety, a higher level of economic cooperation to the mutual advantage of the two countries,” Mr. Malik said.
Pakistan started its liberalisation process in the late 1990s by lowering tariff rates and diluting non-tariff barriers. He admitted that while initially the local industry had suffered setbacks after the economy opened up and gave way to competitively-priced goods, the domestic industry had exhibited resilience and regained its market share. This, along with the consistent economic growth of the last seven or eight years, had instilled in Pakistani industry a sense of confidence to face competition.
The Pakistani business community had expressed apprehension over the high level of subsidies being given to agriculture and the small and medium enterprises in India. While the agriculture and textile sectors were protected by high tariffs, other imports into India were subject to excessive standardisation requirements and cumbersome procedural formalities, they felt. More recently, he said, there were some difficulties for exporters of cement from Pakistan, despite great demand in India.
Referring to non-tariff barriers, he said there were specific tariffs, including Pakistan-specific, on various categories of textiles that affect the competitiveness of their exports.
He appreciated Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh’s statements that non-trade barriers proving to be irritants in SAARC trade would be phased out.
Mr. Malik, who was accompanied by the Minister (Trade), High Commission for Pakistan, Fazal Abbas Maken, said strengthening various trade relations would require a holistic approach.
M. Balasubramanian, president, SICCI, said issues relating to India-Pakistan trade were of significance to the entire South Asian region. He indicated that energy cooperation would be one of the key areas through which both nations could benefit. One of the inhibiting factors in trade was the lack of information on quantities and commodities to be traded, trading environments and policy regimes.
S.C.M. Jamaldeen, executive committee member, SICCI, urged Mr. Malik to consider Chennai as the venue for any Pakistani trade fair. S. Raghavan, secretary, SICCI, introduced Mr. Malik.
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