Around 22 Indian journalists visit HCCI, urge trade ties between Pakistan, India

HYDERABAD: A 22-member delegation of Indian journalists visited Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) on Wednesday.

The delegation comprised of journalists from major news organizations of India, namely, Mrityunjay Bose, Charuhas Satam, Mena Menon, Om Parkash Tiwari, Sarang Darshane, Naresh Kamath, Fawzan Hussain, Dhaval Kulkarni, Harish Nambiar, Jyoti Shelar, Surendra Gangan, Vinod Mahanta, Parkash Akolkar, D K Raikar, Naresh Fernandes, Yogesh Naik, Leela P. Solomon, Anahita Mukherji, Banda N. Kumar, Kamlesh Sutar, Jatinbabu Desai and Shalini Nair.

Indian journalist from The Economic Times, India, Vinod Mahanta, speaking on the occasion, said that India and Pakistan were spending millions of rupees to secure their borders.

He said if this huge amount could be used in trade and the business sector, it would boost the economic capability of both countries and the condition of the poor would improve.

He said that foreign imports would create an atmosphere of competition hence improvement in the quality of manufactured goods. Quoting the example of 1991 when Indian government permitted foreign investors to produce their products, there had been apprehensions of top enterprisers in India but the foreign investment resulted in favour to the country and boosted regional business.

He further said that the trade is the only way to bring the two nations closer to each other. India is an ideal country for investment and it could provide a best market for Pakistani businessmen, he added.

Another senior journalist from India Jyoti Shelar said that recent meetings of State Secretaries for industries of India and Pakistan was appositive development to improve mutual, bilateral and trade relationship.

He said that seaports of Karachi and Bombay are closer to each other, and import and export could be at low cost. He said that both countries should modify their Visa policy and may issue multiple visas and there should be ship cargo service between both countries.

Responding to a question of Indian journalist Former Vice president HCCI Ziauddin said that they had no any apprehensions in trading with India.

He said that Pakistan by giving status of MFN to India has taken a step forward now it was for India to take necessary steps to strengthen the business as well as brotherhood relationship between both countries.

He said that the role of the media was vital in enhancing bilateral trade relationship between the two countries.

Earlier, President of HCCI Goharullah in his welcome address said that Hyderabad is peaceful and ideal city for the investment and due to its proximity to Karachi ports the cost of doing business would be low. He said that we have big Industry of bangles, agro products, bike assembling and textile.

He invited India’s enterprisers and manufacturers such as TATA, BIRLA, RELIANCE and other groups to invest in Hyderabad.

In the end Senior Vice President HCCI, Turab Ali Khoja, thanked the Indian journalists and journalists from Hyderabad.

Copyright PPI (Pakistan Press International), 2011