'China Desk' at LCCI: 100-member Chinese team attends Business Opportunity Conference

A 100-member Chinese delegation on Wednesday attended Pakistan-China Business Opportunity Conference to identify possible areas for collaboration in trade and investment in Pakistan. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, while addressing the conference, jointly organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Punjab Board of Investment (PBIT), said "the involvement of Chinese enterprises both in term of technical and financial assistance in several development projects is reflective of our cordial relations based on mutual trust and sincerity."
Provincial Minister Ayesha Ghous Pasha, Chairman PBIT Abdul Basit, former LCCI Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents and Executive Committee Members also attended the conference. The Chief Minister said China had always stood with Pakistan and helped it in all respects, adding "China is a very important partner in Pakistan Economic Development and Bilateral trade."
He termed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as an energy and infrastructure programme with the investment of $46bn in Pakistan, and said $46 billion was the biggest investment ever made by China in any foreign country. That programme, he said, when completed would help end power outages in the country, and ensure seamless connectivity between China, South and Central Asia. He said that investment climate was getting better with every passing day due to best policies of Punjab government and all possible facilities were being provided to foreign investors.
LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said both the countries not only shared border but also had unanimity of views on various political & economic issues. He said two countries had a combined market of more than 1.5 billion people but the trade volume needed to be pushed up, adding that CPEC would change the destiny of Pakistan. He said that most of raw material was being imported for the projects under CPEC, suggesting that Pakistani material approved from Pakistan Engineering Council should be used for CPEC projects. He said Chinese technological advancement could help Pakistan overcome economic challenges in a short span of time. He also announced to set a "China Desk" at the LCCI to provide necessary information to the investors.
Chinese Consul General Yu Boren said both Pakistan and China had huge potential to increase the bilateral trade as the existing volume of two-way trade between the two countries was very small when it was compared with the total Chinese business. He said incentive package and CPEC was enough to make the point that China gave top priority to Pakistan in terms of business and trade.
Chairman Pak-China Friendship Association Sha Zukang said CPEC would further cement trade and economic ties between the two countries. He said both countries looked forward to have further exchanges of visits, to have more high level contacts to promote mutual friendship and cooperation in various fields including politics, economy and people to people contacts. He said CPEC would be further promoted, particularly cooperation in trade, investment, energy and communications would be strengthened.
LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Hyder said Chinese investment in energy projects would certainly solve the issue of energy shortage in Pakistan. He invited the Chinese businessmen to enhance their investment in priority sectors including Oil and Gas, Mining, Infrastructure, Power and IT & Telecom etc. He said though trade had been increased from $9.3 billion in 2013 to $11.8 billion in 2014 but still there was a lot of room for enhancement of trade and economic ties. The conference was followed by B2B meetings between the Chinese delegation and Pakistani businessmen belonging to different sectors including energy, mines, health, transport, textiles, agriculture and IT.