NEW DELHI: India has decided to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan, India's trade minister said on Friday, hours before the two countries were due to open a trading post on the border in the latest sign of thawing economic ties.
"India has taken an in-principle decision, as a part of the process to deepen our economic engagement, to allow foreign direct investments from Pakistan in India," said Trade Minister Anand Sharma at a news conference with his Pakistani counterpart.
Under current rules, Pakistani citizens cannot directly invest in India. Investment flows are unlikely to surge, but the move will go some way to addressing concerns by Pakistani businessmen that India places too many restrictions on them.
More than 600 Pakistani businesses are in New Delhi this week at a trade fair to promote their products to the Indian market.
Sharma also said an agreement to relax restrictions on visas for Pakistani businessmen was almost ready.
Later on Friday, Sharma and the Pakistani trade minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, will open an expanded border trade terminal at Wagah, between the Pakistani city of Lahore and India's Amritsar.
With a capacity to handle about 600 trucks a day, the border crossing is expected to help bring trade to $8 billion annually from the current level of $2.6 billion, Indian industry chamber ASSOCHAM said in a study published this week.
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