PTI reported that the TATA Nano could be cruising on Pakistani roads if the governments of India and Pakistan remove bottlenecks standing in the way of joint ventures and investments between the two countries.
The International Multi Group of Companies, a Pakistani business house with interests in areas as diverse as edible oil and film imports has expressed an interest in importing vehicles from India's mammoth Tata Group including the Nano and CNG buses.
Mr Amjad Rashid chairman of IMGC Global said that "We already have a letter of intent with the TATA Group as we were interested in their CNG buses. At a later stage, if restrictions in the trade policies of both India and Pakistan are removed, we are interested in bringing the Nano to Pakistan."
IMGC's plans to import CNG buses from TATA have been held up due to restrictions in Pakistan's trade policy which allows the import of only a limited number of vehicles and makes it mandatory for a majority of vehicles to be assembled within the country. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India's policies do not allow JV and investments in Pakistan.
Mr Rashid said that we raised these issues with Indian Commerce Secretary Mr Rahul Khullar when he was in Islamabad last month for talks with the Pakistani Commerce Secretary and he promised to get these restrictions removed.
He said that his group which has an annual turnover of about USD 200 million is keen on bringing the Nano into Pakistan. That is the ultimate objective. We already have a letter of intent. Once the bottlenecks are removed we would import the CNG buses and the next step would be the Nano.
Mr Rashid said that IMGC, one of Pakistan's largest manufacturers of edible oil is also interested in collaborating in other sectors with the Tata Group including technology. The group is also Pakistan's largest importer of Indian films.
He said that we brought in 30 Indian films last year and we have signed for 15 more films this year. We are also about to conclude a deal for digital film technology which will remove the need for importing film prints as movies will be brought in as digital files.
(Sourced from Press Trust of India)
