Taking advantage of a thaw in tense relations, Pakistan has approached India for help in developing its software sector, an Indian industry group said here on Sunday.
Representatives of Pakistani software companies will visit India next month and an Indian delegation will tour Pakistan later in the year to pursue possible co-operation, India's National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom, said.
Nasscoms counterpart, Pakistan Software Houses Association, or Pasha, wants to emulate India's success in obtaining outsourcing contracts from the West and learn skills to manage the software business, the statement quoted Jehan Ara, Pasha's president, as saying.
India is the world's leader in back office and software outsourcing business and is expected to earn 13 billion dollar in the year ending in March 2004. Pakistan's software companies earn 50 million dollar annually.
"The purpose of this visit and association between Nasscom and Pasha is not only to explore and cultivate IT (information technology) trade opportunities, but also share Indian IT companies' success and experience in providing high quality services and process management skills," Jehan Ara said in a statement.
The Pakistani delegation will visit India's commercial hub, Bombay, on February 3-6 and take part in Nasscom's annual meeting. It will also visit some other Indian cities.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which came to the brink of war in 2002, have taken a series of peace initiatives since last April, restoring bus, train and air services.
The neighbours also have agreed to hold talks on resolving a decades-old dispute over Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
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