The powerful Keighley Business Forum is to merge with the younger Keighley Asian Business Forum.

Leaders of both organisations have held discussions and decided to formally join together from April 1. The merger will create one powerful organisation with nearly 500 members.

Keighley Business Forum, which has an international reputation, is likely to set up a new sub-group to discuss issues of Asian interest.

Forum chairman Tim Parr says the merger is good news for Keighley and a good step forward for local businesses. "It's been on the cards for some time," he says. "The Asian Business Forum was only ever supposed to be a temporary state of affairs. It is great that community relations have moved on in Keighley such that there is no longer a need to have a separate organisation to look after Asian business interests. It is a step forward for both organisations. They will be much more powerful voice as one organisation."

KBF director Iain Copping agrees. "If Asian businesses are going to succeed they need to be recognised as part of the mainstream, and the more integrated they are the better," he says. "The Asian Business Forum's project manager Ismail Sulaiman will be working for KBF in much the same role, but he will have better back-up. I think all businesses in the area will benefit."

Both organisations run initiatives to boost the local economy, and the Asian forum encourages members to diversify from traditional sectors such as retailing.

Keighley Asian Business Forum was set up in 1992 to help meet and develop the needs of the local Asian business community. In its first year it mounted a successful 11th hour rescue bid to save the town's Asian Mela, successfully campaigned for an open-air market at Lawkholme Lane and raised cash for charities.

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