Board of Investment and Chinese companies to meet on monthly basis

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE (December 08 2008): Chairman Board of Investment Saleem H. Mandviwalla and representatives of Chinese Companies will meet every month to review progress of Chinese investment in Pakistan and remove any bureaucratic bottlenecks, red tapism, misgivings or difficulties in implementing of their projects.

It may be recalled that the Chiense Ambassador in Islamabad Luo Zhaohui met President Asif Ali Zardari and briefed him about the difficulties Chinese investors were facing in enhancing economic, technological and trade relations between the two friendly countries.

The President had directed Chairman BOI to have a meeting with the association of the Chinese companies and assure them of the ggovernment's full co-operation In the follow up meeting here on Friday, Chairman of the Association Li Hong complained that Chinese Dongfang Electric Corporation , a State owned company, had won an open bid to supply 75 locomotives to Pakistan Railway at half the price of its competitors, yet the formal ceremony for signing of the contract was not being held. Mandviwalla said that a special committee was examining the matter. The Chinese representatives also expressed concern about security of their employees.

It may be added that China's investment in Pakistan has jumped to an all-time high of $4 billion. Its companies make up 12 per cent - 60 of 500 - of all the foreign firms operating in Pakistan.

Chinese presence in Pakistan has grown drastically since the US invasion of Afghanistan, which brought Beijing and Islamabad together to build a naval-cum-commercial port at Gwader, in Balochistan. There are more than ten thousand Chinese engineers, technicians, managers, businessmen working in Pakistan. In October 2008 during President Zardari's visit to Beijing, Pakistan and China signed 11 agreements, memorandums of understanding and protocols to enhance bilateral co-operation in trade, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, industry, mining, telecommunication, disaster relief and space technology.

Chinese EXIM Bank has already an investment of over $2 billion in Pakistan and has expressed willingness to work for further strengthening trade and economic co-operation between the two countries.

Chinese investment companies and industrial firms have offered to invest $5 billion in Pakistan's defence, banking, oil exploration and mining sectors as well as the Thar Coal and Bhasha Dam projects.

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