Businessmen who visited India from four neighbouring countries
Figures are in thousands (approximate)

Years Sri Lanka Bangladesh Pakistan China
2005 10 21 7 7
2006 15 25 6 8
2007 21 26 7 7
2008 25 30 7 8


The table breaks up data on number of businessmen who visited India from four neighbouring countries for four years starting from 2005.

It is very clear that Bangladesh recorded the highest number of business contingent in all four periods. In 2005 it was 21,000, but it kept on increasing over the years like 2006, 2007 recording an increase 1000 visits each, and finally 2008 touched the 30,000 mark. Closely followed by Bangladesh was Sri Lanka. The figures for the four periods were constantly rising from 10000 in 2005 to 25000 in 2008.

Now let us look at the figures that represent Pakistan and China. In 2005 and 2007 both the countries posted 7000 business visits to India. But there was slight difference in the year 2006 and 2008. The figures for Pakistan are 6000 and 7000 respectively and for China it is 8000 each.

So it is obvious that India’s trade relation with its neighbour Bangladesh is much better than all the other three neighbours.