China to enhance Pak investment

Lahore: China will increase its investment in Pakistan from $1 billion to $15 billion by 2012 while trade volume between the two countries by then will also triple from current $5.2 billion to $15 billion.

Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhao Hui stated this while speaking at a function on Pakistan-China trade at the Punjab Governor House. He, however, stressed the need of balancing the bilateral trade which was highly tilted in favour of China. He said Pakistan’s exports to China stood at $1.4 billion against Chinese exports of $3.8 billion to Pakistan.

He said the benefits of Free Trade Agreement between the two countries would be visible in the next five years. However, he advised Pakistani entrepreneurs to explore the Chinese market actively in order to bring a balance in trade between the two sides.

He said the Pak-China Investment Company established with an initial capital of Rs12 billion was different from other similar companies as the emphasis of the company would be on involving the private sector in joint ventures between the two countries.

Federal Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah, speaking on the occasion, pointed out that the Chinese Development Bank had a larger investment portfolio than the World Bank and said Pakistan should focus on obtaining assistance from that bank to accelerate its growth.

He said China could benefit from the low labour cost and young age of Pakistani workers, adding with Chinese assistance economic growth of the country could be further accelerated. He said the Chinese for mutual advantage of the two countries could exploit the demographic advantage of Pakistani population.

“Pakistan is well poised to become the sixth largest global economy in near future,” he said, adding the economic growth of the country would be further accelerated. Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool said over 5,000 Chinese were working in Punjab and the government had made adequate arrangements to ensure their safety. He said Chinese were establishing the largest fertiliser factory of the country and work on widening the Karakorum Highway was being initiated with the assistance and cooperation of Beijing.

PCICL to facilitate development plan: The Pak-China Investment Company Limited (PCICL) was launched to facilitate the implementation of a five-year development programme between the two sides at the Governor House here on Thursday, adds APP.

Caretaker Federal Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs, Revenue and Statistics Dr Salman Shah was the chief guest while Punjab Governor Lt Gen (R) Khalid Maqbool presided over the launching ceremony.

The PCICL is a joint venture between the China Development Bank (CDB) and Pakistan’s finance ministry and the company has become operational with an initial paid-up capital of $70 million to be increased to $200 million by 2009.

Dr Salman Shah said bilateral trade between Pakistan and China was $1 billion which would be expanded to $15 billion in the next five years and the PCICL would work to achieve the objectives of the five-year development programme. The primary objective of the five-year programme is to steer and promote rapid, stable and orderly development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation to broaden the scope to achieve a balanced trade and mutually beneficial results.