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Indo-Pak bilateral ties can improve via SME route
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Namrata Kath Hazarika | 22 Apr, 2010
With the collaboration between SMEs of India and Pakistan, both the countries can increase their bilateral position to a great extend, said the Minister (Trade), High Commission for Pakistan, Naeem Anwar in New Delhi recently.
Pointing this out, Anwar told SME Times, "The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in both Pakistan and India can collaborate to great extend. They can share experiences. I think it is a large unorganised sector both in India and Pakistan, which are not collaborating in a focused manner. If they can collaborate, then they can increase their bilateral positions to a great extend."
Anwar feels that lot of SME products especially handicrafts, marbles, embroideries, female fabric are there which both the countries can share with each other. However he lamented that the Indian government is not aware what Pakistan can offer as there is suspension on B2B interactions.
The Indo-Pak bilateral ties has also weakened due to the lack of awareness amongst Indian consumers about Pakistani products and also because of suspension of dialogues at the political level, said Anwar.
Pointing this out, he said, "We have found that there is a lack of awareness amongst Indian consumers about Pakistani products. And, we have lot of product which are much competitive in price and can be sold in India."
He urged the governments of both the countries to strengthen relationships which will likely increase the market access in each other's country.
"At the moment, it is priority of the government to strengthen the SME sector and exchange of delegations on the SME front specially and moreover marketing particularly SME products would help both the sides to improve economic ties," he added.
Anwar also said, "At present, the major problem faced by the region is that it does not have a conducive environment. And, to encourage the commercial activity, we need to resume the dialogue. The problem is of security, stability, movement of people, the custom clearance...and if we are unable to bring stability in all these, we cannot encourage commercial activities."
"Similarly, on quality standards there is no agreement between the two countries. If these are removed then I think there is a great potential. To reconcile the things we need to discuss, talk and then we can explore," Anwar added.
Meanwhile, addressing the business meeting organised by FICCI, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Pakistan's Minister for Population Welfare, declared that the only way to bridge the trust deficit, plug the communication gaps and remove the distorted perceptions in the minds of the politicians and the people of India and Pakistan about one another. It is also necessary to sit together and expeditiously resume the composite dialogue at the political level.
The Pakistan Minister said, "This is not the time to fight on the war front. We can collectively win the war over the complicated mindset of accusing one another of fomenting terrorism through deepening our economic engagement. The way forward was the resumption of the composite dialogue. In parallel, we need to strengthen our economic exchanges and people-to-people contact."
India has exported goods worth US$ 2 billion to Pakistan, its import from Pakistan was a mere US$ 200 million, mainly due to Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) before the suspension of dialogue between both the countries.
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