Pak-China Forum for promoting business, banking sector cooperation
begins in Beijing

BEIJING—Ambassador Salman Bashir said here Monday Pakistan offers immense incentives and opportunities to Chinese investors for investment in diverse fields. Welcoming the participants of Pakistan China Forum for Promoting Business & Banking Sector Cooperation, the Ambassador in his address said that the time tested friendship between Pakistan and China span over more than 6 decades and the cooperative relations and strategic partnership between the two countries are strengthening with the passage of time.
The Forum largely attended by Chief Executive Officers of prominent banks, key Chinese financial institutions and more than 50 Corporates from all over China was first of its kind organized jointly by Pakistan Embassy and Habib Bank Limited. Salman Bashir appreciated the initiative of HBL and thanked its chief representative at Beijing Mohammad Aslam for his proactive approach.
He said that the Forum will provide a platform for the Chinese bankers and financial institutions to have first hand knowledge about the investment opportunities Pakistan offers in diverse fields. The Ambassador said that time has come that the existing strong ties in different areas should now be transformed into the economic bonds.
He pointed out that realizing the importance of economic relations the leadership of both the countries have taken a number of initiatives that included most significant 5-year joint programme in trade and economic cooperation, the FTA that is now operational, the Pak-China Investment Company, the special Economic Zones and preferential trade regime for the Chinese investors are some of the important steps that had been taken for the promotion of economic ties.
Ambassador Salman Bashir told the august gathering that there are tremendous opportunities that Pakistan offers for the foreign investors, especially for China in every sector of the economy. He said that to expand the scope of FTA, negotiations are going smoothly between the two countries to incorporate the FTA in service sectors that would bring enormous opportunities to the banking, insurance and other services sectors of the two countries to intensify their volume of trade.
He pointed out that we have two representative offices one each of HBL and NBP and some more Pakistani banks are working on to establish their office in China and asked the Chinese bankers to also set up their offices in Pakistan to promote Sino-Pak banking sector cooperation.
China has contributed a lot for the development of Pakistan economy, the Ambassador said and pointed out that we hope that Chinese investors would avail incentives tailored for them by Pakistan to further consolidate our economic ties.
The Commercial Counsellor of Pakistan Embassy in his presentation highlighted the economic turn around the Pakistan has achieved. He said that the GDP, foreign remittances, FDI has increased many fold due to friendly economic policies initiated by the present government.
He pointed out that there is big potential available for the Chinese investment in power generation, agriculture, oil and gas exploration as well as in huge coal reserves. Speaking on the occasion, The Vice Chairman designate of Pak-China Investment Company Chen Jianbo said great potential exists for cooperation between CDB, HBL & other financial institutions.—APP