Delhi Declaration at Aman Ki Asha identifies six areas to build economic ties between India and Pakistan
20 May 2010
The Indo-Pak Business Meet, part of the 'Aman Ki Asha' initiative of Times Group and Jang Group of Pakistan has identified six sectors to fast-track economic ties between the two countries under the Delhi Decleration adoped on Wednesday. These are:
- Textiles with Pakistan exporting its home textiles and India its polyester textiles
- Information techonolgy (IT) which due to its virtual nature lends itself easily to collaboration
- Agriculture, which affords tremendous opportunities if logistics and storage facilities are fixed
- Healthcare, with both nations suffering due to the paucity and quality of the available facilities and where a combined effort would help address the three major diseases-of the heart, diabetes and cancer-that plague both nations
- Energy, with constant outages being a perennial issue that could be addressed with tapping of unexploited resources, and
- Education: Given the size of the young population in the countries, investment in the vital sector would pay the highest dividend over time.
According to the declaration committees comprising business leaders from both countries would be set up for IT and textile sectors, with similar ones in the offing for the others.
The event saw the objectives of the Aman Ki Asha, the peace initiative launched jointly by The Times of India and the Jang Group of Pakistan get a ringing endorsement from the assembly participants.
One of the Delhi Declaration's major objectives is to take specific steps to change public perception and end the existing mistrust between India and Pakistan about each other. This is sought to be achieved by allowing uplinking from India and Pakistan and opening up news channels in both countries as the first step.
Additionally easing of communication between the two countries is being would be sought to be fast tracked.
On Tuesday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee evoked from history two visions of the future before business leaders from India and Pakistan.
