Cii For Priority To Indo-Pak Business Ties

Business and economic linkages should be given priority over political ties in Indo-Pak relations, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said Friday.

In order to achieve this, CII has recommended a four-step process that will help in forging better economic ties between the two countries. This includes accelerating confidence-building measures, encouraging mutual sourcing, removing infrastructural and logistic inadequacies and improving connectivity.

Another important measure to forge a relationship will be to explore holding bilateral summits of economic ministries at regular intervals, the chamber stated in a statement issued here today.

According to CII, the business communities of the two countries have said that the existing environment did not favour a situation of steady growth in bilateral trade and ascribed political factors as major deterrents in enhancing Indo-Pak trade and economic cooperation.

CII further recommended the institutionalisation of a joint parliamentary conference as the first step towards building confidence between the business communities on both sides of the border.

The joint parliamentary conference could have a secretariat with representatives from the private sectors of both the countries in its economic and commercial wing. It also stressed that it sees