Fourth China-South Asia Business Forum: China urged to make sizeable investment in Pa

[LahoreEstate]

LAHORE (June 07 2009): President of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC CCI), Tariq Sayeed has underlined the need for a sizeable investment by China in the South Asian countries, particularly Pakistan to have a quantum leap in trade with the countries in the region.

According to a message received here on Saturday, Tariq Sayeed, stated this in his keynote speech at the 4th China-South Asia Business Forum, entitled "Facing Global Financial Crisis: Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and South Asian Countries," at Kunming, China.

He said foreign direct investment had played a vital role in elevating China as the second largest nation with regard to exports. SAARC CCI President called for enhanced economic co-operation between China and South Asia as a mechanism to face challenges posed by global financial meltdown. The global financial crisis had broken inertia of sustainable and double digit economic growth of China and many developing countries, which were heavily dependant on the US and EU countries, he added.

He underlined the need to evolve a common strategy by China and South Asian countries to face the challenges. Tariq Sayeed said on account of its ability to produce quality goods at highly competitive prices China enjoyed huge trade surplus with 134 countries, as a result medium sized economies facing huge trade deficit perceived China as threat to their economies.

He urged the public and private sectors of China to change this perception through a sizeable FDI into such countries, which are facing huge trade deficit with it including Pakistan. He said since 2000 trade between China and South Asian countries had witnessed a steady growth of more than 20 per cent per annum and trade volume was expected to exceed $60 billion mark by the end of 2009.

Referring to a study, he said China's trade with India would reach $60 billion, with Pakistan $10 billion, Bangladesh $5 billion, Sri Lanka $4 billion, Nepal $800 million and Maldives $200 million by 2010. However, he said pace of China-South Asia trade was relatively slow as compared to China's trade with ASEAN, which was likely to reach $275 billion by 2010.

Appreciating the economic policies of China, he said since it adopted liberal policies in 1982 the country had made tremendous growth. It had been successful in attracting FDI of worth $800 billion since then including $82 billion in 2008 alone, which had been instrumental in making China as the second largest export-oriented country and reducing poverty from 50 percent to 16 percent, he added.

"Developing countries need to follow Chinese Economic Model, if they want to attain sustainable growth," said President SAARC CCI. He said the government of Pakistan had embarked upon a very liberal and friendly policy towards South Asia, which would help in effective implementation of SAFTA and provide China enormous opportunities in the neighbouring region.

SAARC CCI President gave some recommendations to further improve economic co-operation between China and South Asia, which included Chinese FDI in South Asian countries, transfer of technology, close relationship between business communities, frequent exchange of delegations at socio-economic and cultural levels, promotion of tourism, removal of non-tariff barriers, technical assistance to increase production base of agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

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