Chinese investors wooed

President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan has become one of the major destinations for Chinese investors and the existing investment and trade equations between the two countries can further be enhanced if important Chinese banks like ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) start operations in Pakistan.

During his meeting with Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Board of ICBC, Wang Lili, at the Presidency, the president said the government would welcome the ICBC playing a major role in promoting investment and joint ventures in Pakistan involving Chinese companies.

Zardari said that Pakistan welcomes the ICBC to undertake project financing and establishing project consortia for mega projects, especially in energy, telecommunications, infrastructure and mining sectors. He said the ICBC should seriously consider launching its operations in Pakistan by setting up ICBC branches.

The president said that Pakistan has a Free Trade Agreement with China in goods, investment and services that ensures full security to Chinese investment in Pakistan. He said liberal incentives offered by the government, low cost labour and access to huge markets of countries in the region, Pakistan offered unique opportunity to Chinese investors to invest in Pakistan. The president thanked the Chinese corporations already doing business in in the country and said that the true potential of business partnership between the entrepreneurs of two countries was yet to be fully realised.

He also said that various areas, including oil and gas exploration, shipbuilding and industrial sectors, provided excellent opportunities for Chinese banks to consider investment in addition to availing opportunities in the country’s growing economy.

Wang Lili thanked the president for the meeting and appreciated the government’s interest to welcome and actively engage the ICBC for further deepening mutual cooperation and business relations.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has called for joint concerted efforts to make economic relations between Pakistan and China commensurate with the level of political ties between the two sides.

The prime minister expressed the hope that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world, would soon open its branches in Pakistan and acquire equities in Pakistani banks to pave the way for increased trade and investment ties between the two countries.

He was speaking with SEVP of the ICBC Wang Lili who called on him at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

Published in the Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2010.