Business calling: A Pakistani stall at a trade fair on the Maidan. File picture

Calcutta, May 14: Pakistani industrialists would like to visit Calcutta to explore business opportunities, a goodwill team which visited that country recently said.

“They specifically requested us to help out in exploring business prospects. They have shown interest in joint ventures in the textile, leather, and gems and jewellery industries,” Bengal Initiative chairman Amiya Gooptu, who led the 25-member team to Pakistan, said.

Gooptu said his team had spoken to the industrialists about the upcoming Bantala leather complex and asked them to send a delegation to meet the right people.

“They are very strong in leather but when they heard about the modern machinery that will be installed, they were keen,” he said.

The team, which was in Pakistan from April 29 to May 10, has signed an agreement with the Sahrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan. Having returned “with a lot of hope”, it has also submitted a report to the foreign ministry.

According to the agree- ment, both sides have agreed to increase trade volume from $3 billion to $10 billion in two or three years. Talks would be held regularly and there would be exchange of information on a regular basis.

Gooptu has invited the industrialists to visit Bengal Initiative’s Calcutta headquarters. “They import 150 million kg of tea. We told them they should buy from us instead of Kenya at a much greater cost. We invited them to meet officials of the Tea Board and sort out problems.”

Bengal Initiative is in the process of sending detailed reports to the Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand governments.

Gooptu said his team had visited Islamabad, Lahore, Murree and Peshawar and found both people and policy makers speaking a different language. They wanted to ensure the neighbours came together so that they could jointly “intervene in issues affecting them and the region”.

“We said we were bringing a message of peace and understanding so that we forget our immediate points of friction, work out something and not become hostage to political differences,” Gooptu said.

Bengal Initiative delegations have visited Pakistan twice earlier ? in 1991 and 1999. The invitation this time came from the Islamabad-based Institute of Strategic Studies.