They also showed their interest to invest in shipping business in a bid to establish a direct shipping line between the two countries.

"Some of our private sector investors already showed their interest to invest in Bangladesh to set up motor cycle assembling plants and small scale shaping line business," Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), told journalists coming out of a meeting with Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed in Dhaka yesterday.

Saeed, who is leading the visiting 49-member Pakistani business delegation, also said that they will sit today with the Board of Investment (BoI) to discuss possible investment proposals.

Pointing to the huge trade gap between Bangladesh and Pakistan, the commerce minister said Pakistan is enjoying trade surplus.

He urged the local exporters to export more goods to Pakistan to cut the trade gap amounting to $75.80 million in the 2004-05 fiscal.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has a persistent trade deficit with Pakistan. During FY 1996-97, such deficit was $28.49 million, which reached more than double in FY 2004-05 standing at $75.80 million.

The total trade volume between Bangladesh and Pakistan was $202.04million in the fiscal year 2004-05 when Bangladesh's import from Pakistan reached $ 138.92 million and export only $63.12million.

"In terms of balance of trade between the countries, Pakistan is on a positive side. So it is needed to export more to Pakistan to reduce the trade deficit," the commerce minister said, adding that from the government side, Bangladesh has proposed for a duty free access on 10 products consisting 102 items to Pakistan to reduce this gap.

"But exporters should come forward to make a win-win trade balance between the two countries," Hafizuddin said.

The FPCCI president said non-existence of a direct shipping line between the two countries remains a obstacle to enhancing Bangla-Pak trade. So it is very important to start a direct shipping line under private sector.

He said it is very unlikely that Bangladeshi pharmaceutical exporters are facing problems as Pakistan denies registering Bangladeshi pharmaceutical products to enter their market.

But the Bangladesh side also denied it. So it is happening reciprocally. Both of the countries need to activate their policies in this regard, he added.

"We have Rs100billion pharmaceuticals market. Bangladeshi exporters can avail of the opportunity to increase their export to such a big market," the FPCCI president said.