Pakistan commerce minister to visit India

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) Pakistan Commerce Minister Mohammad Amin Fahim, accompanied by a trade delegation, will visit India this week to give a push to liberalisation of trade and visa norms.

Fahim will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma Thursday and will hold a joint press briefing, sources said.

The two ministers are likely to examine the issue of liberalisation of trade, especially in textiles, cement, electricity and petroleum segments.

This will be Fahim's second visit to New Delhi in seven months.

Trade relations between India and Pakistan have deepened with frequent ministerial, official and business delegation visits in the last one year.

Industry Minister Anand Sharma, accompanied by chief executives of over 100 companies, visited Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in February this year. Sharma is the first trade minister to visit Pakistan in more than three decades.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) will organise business-to-business meetings between the Indian and the visiting Pakistani delegation Thursday, a FICCI official said.

Apart from holding bilateral talks, the two ministers will inaugurate a four-day exhibition in which over 100 Pakistani lifestyle companies will showcase their products and services.

The event called 'Lifestyle Pakistan' to be held from April 12-15 at Pragati Maidan here, is being organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

It follows a three-day India Show organised by FICCI in Lahore in February this year.