Monday, September 19 2005 19:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Stressing on the need to change mindset for opening up bilateral trade, Pakistan today (Sept 19, 2005) said it was willing to consider an open sky policy with India and easing of visa restrictions for its nationals.

At a FICCI interaction, Pakistan Commerce Minister Humanyun Akhtar Khan said his government had 'no problems' in forging an open sky policy with India and would endeavour to liberalise its visa regime for businessmen and other communities.

He, however, did not give any timeframe for moving towards the open sky policy but said the two countries have set the ball rolling by deciding to relook the bilateral Civil Aviation Agreement.

Apart from working towards removing other impediments, Khan emphasised that Pakistan was committed to the January one, 2006 deadline for the South Asia Free Trade Agreement, which would remove most of the restrictions to bilateral trade including stringent tariff regime.

He also agreed to take a fresh look at the 'outdated' India-Pakistan Shipping Agreement.

Sharing his thoughts with Khan, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said it was time that the regional South Asian trading bloc was strengthened just as other trading blocs to cash in on globalisation.

Regarding the demand of the Indian industry to have a 'negative list' instead of having a positive list of items of import from India, Khan said once SAFTA comes into being many of the trade restrictions would go automatically.

"We are willing to go beyond SAFTA for India-Pakistan trade and the two countries would fully operationalise SAFTA within five years instead of 10 years as provided in the agreement," the Pakistan Minister said. "The world is moving fast, there are plethora of regional agreements and South Asia has one of the lowest regional trade," Khan said, adding the two countries must create a political climate conducive for greater economic engagements.

Khan said there are problems within the two countries but now there is a will to move forward at the political level.

"This is not going to be easy but we are engaged and the two sides are moving on the right path," he said and added that obstacles in mind should be removed first.

Citing the European Union as the best example of regional integration, Khan said the European countries have come together despite two world wars and nearly 100 years of conflict amongst them.

"Let us not be pessimistic, 58 years is just a blip in history of two nations," he said, adding it was time the two countries moved forward through resolution of those problems. Echoing his Pakistani counterpart's thoughts, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said greater economic engagement would play a major role in normalising relations between the two countries.

Nath said there was a need for enhancing regional trade and asked industry representatives on both sides of the border to come forward for increasing bilateral trade.

Assuring Pakistan industry that greater trade with India would be mutually beneficial; he said India's imports from across the border have also risen substantially.

Between April-June 2005, India's exports rose 8 per cent to 143 million dollar while imports rose 150 per cent to 11 million dollar; he said but admitted that import base was low.

The economies of both India and Pakistan are growing at a fast pace, Nath said, adding the strong economic indices would create momentum.