Commerce Minister of Pakistan Humayun Akhtar Khan Monday said that his country was willing to consider an open-sky policy with India and easing of visa restrictions for its nationals, especially the business community.

At an interaction meeting organized by the Indian Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Monday, Khan also said that the two countries had also set the ball rolling by deciding to re-look the bilateral civil aviation agreement.

He, however, did not specify any time-schedule for working out any such policy.

Apart from working toward removing other impediments, Khan emphasized that Pakistan was committed to the Jan. 1, 2006 deadline for the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), which would remove most of the restrictions to bilateral trade including stringent tariff regime.

SAFTA was agreed to among the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which groups India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.

SAFTA will come into effect in Jan. 2006, reducing tariffs for intraregional trade among the seven SAARC members. It replaces the earlier South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and may lead to a full-fledged South Asia Economic Union.

Endorsing Khan's views, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said it was time that the regional South Asian trading bloc was strengthened just as other trading blocs would cash in on globalization.

"We are willing to go beyond SAFTA for India-Pakistan trade and the two countries would have made SAFTA fully operational within five years instead of 10 years as provided for in the agreement," the Pakistan minister said.

However, Khan maintained that there was a need to create a political climate conducive for a greater economic integration or forming a kind of a European Union kind of body.

"This is not going to be easy but we are engaged and the two sides are moving on the right path," he added.

Agreeing with his Pakistani counterpart, Kamal Nath said greater economic engagement would play a major role in normalizing relations between the two countries.

The Indian minister assured Pakistan industry that greater trade with India would be mutually beneficial.

Stating that India's imports from Pakistan have also risen substantially, Kamal Nath said that in the first three months of the current fiscal, India's exports rose 8 percent to 143 million dollars while imports rose 150 percent to 11 million dollars.

Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan grew by 76 percent to 600.77 million US dollars in the last fiscal.

Source: Xinhua