Business across the Wagah border seems to be the flavour of the season. At a time when the visiting Pakistani businessmen are busy striking deals with their Indian counterparts, it’s a group of women entrepreneurs who have now decided to go to Pakistan to explore business opportunities.Under the aegis of The Ficci Ladies Organisation (FLO) nearly 20-25 women entrepreneurs will be visiting Pakistan from August 3 to August 10, 2003. The FLO president Chandra Garodia who will also head the delegation said that “this would be purely business and less cultural delegation.” This is going to be first initiative by Indian women entrepreneurs after Kargil debacle and they are confident to break the ice between their Pakistani counterparts, she added.FLO has already written a letter to Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) which is making all the necessary arrangements for the visiting group. The group plans to visit Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and plans to meet leading NGOs, parliamentarians and businesswomen. The Indian group is armed with women who are dealing in products like special yarn, herbal cosmetics, honey products, jewellery, garments, construction, mattresses etc. Besides this, finance, advertising and education professionals will also be a part of the delegation.She informed that they will mainly look at handcrafted products of Pakistan like silver jewellery, ladies footwear and hand embroidered cloth. She said that we are looking at establishing distribution tie-ups or franchisee to sell our products across the countries. She said they also had a close interaction with Senator Bilour, the president of Pakistani delegation.
