By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Dr.Shahid Rasheed Butt on Wednesday welcomed the statement of Adviser to Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood which supported the resumption of trade ties with India.
The business community supports the realistic approach of Mr. Dawood and it wants that mutual trade with the neighbouring country should be started as soon as possible.
In a statement issued here, Shahid Rashid Butt said that diplomatic and cultural relations with India should also be restored, as tensions were not in anyone’s interest.
He said that Pakistan had suspended trade relations with India in 2019 after the later revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir but now the time has come to move forward.
The business leader said that trade between the South Asia countries is almost non-existent which if increased will improve the living standards of the masses and reduce political tensions.
According to the World Bank, the trade potential between Pakistan and India is 37 billion dollars which is almost zero at this time, he said, adding that regional countries need to increase their interdependence in order to come closer to each other and resolve political issues through dialogue to end mistrust. He noted that India’s economy is almost ten times bigger than Pakistan’s. In the current situation, Pakistan’s economy will continue to shrink while India’s economy will continue to expand which could be forty times bigger than Pakistan’s economy in three decades.
Instead of confronting such a country, it may be more beneficial to develop
friendly relations with it, but for that, India will also have to reconsider
its policies.
Europe build an economic bloc despite two world wars, the US and Japan can
become allies after the former dropped nuclear bomb on Japan, therefore,
countries of South Asia can also become friends, he said.
