PAKISTAN: BRITAIN RELAXES TRAVEL ADVISORY
Islamabad, 14 June (AKI/DAWN) - Britain has relaxed the travel advice given to Pakistan for its nationals after improvement in the security situation in Pakistan. Speaking to the industrialists and traders at Islamabad's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the British High Commissioner, Mark Lyal Grant, said that security situation had improved in Pakistan and for this reason the British government had removed some of the more stringent conditions from its travel advice to facilitate its nationals intending to visit Pakistan.
He said Britain fully supported democracy and appreciated the steps taken by the Pakistan's government for holding local government elections in near future.
Grant said a new British airline will start its operations in Pakistan soon. As for economic ties between the two countries, he said in 2003-2004 the total trade between Pakistan and the UK was 1.4 billion US dollars and that the Britain was the only country in Europe, whose trade balance was in favour of Pakistan.
He also added that the visa-issuing processing time had been reduced to seven days for businessmen.
He said at present 80 British companies were operating in Pakistan and more companies were interested in making investments.
According to the high commissioner, 800,000 Pakistanis were living in Britain and the majority of them were Kashmiris.
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