Pakistan enjoys good prospects to set up hotel or restaurant business in China, solely or in joint venture.
This can also contribute to promote national culture and existing goodwill between the two countries.
During a survey, it was observed that there is a growing trend among the Chinese to enjoy variety of food provided by other nationalities. A vast majority of Chinese has shown keen interest in Pakistani food and wish it is available in the local market.
"If a chain of Pakistani traditional food is opened here, it could attract good business, said a Chinese businessman, Zhang Xian, who had recently returned home after his four-year stay in Pakistan.
In an interview, Zhang said Pakistani traditional food like Polao, Biryani, Karai, Shami Kabab, Seekh Kabab, Halwa Puree, Samosa, Kofta and Lassi provided a unique taste, which could be equally popular among the locals.
Besides this, confectionery items like cakes, Rasgulla, Gulabjaman and Barfee also had potential to meet the liking of the Chinese, he said, adding the colour, taste and smell of the Pakistani dishes might also carry special attraction to the food-lovers.
According to an estimate, spicy food known as Asian or sub-continental food have a lot of attraction even for the people of other nationalities.
The food market including hotels, restaurants fast food and junk food business in China have jumped to over 30 billion dollars in the recent years.
Hundreds of fast food chains, like McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Domino and Popeye were spread all over China.
A number of restaurants and fast food shops have been set up by the businessman from the US, France, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, India, Russia and Japan in various major cities.
A couple of years back, there was one Indian restaurant in Beijing, but now the number has risen to 12. It was amazing that there was no Pakistani hotel or restaurant even in the capital.
An official of state-run China Economic and Trade Consultant Corporation, Irene Liang, said that they were prepared to help Pakistanis to introduce their business. They could be contacted on email [email protected].
The Chinese government had recently relaxed rules, providing ample opportunities to foreigners to do business here and earn foreign exchange, a Chinese official said.
Five foreign and joint venture restaurants in the top 100 restaurants in China reported operating revenue of 15.64 billion yuan (1.92 billion dollars) last year.
Their operating revenue accounted for around one-third of the total of the top 100 restaurants, said the China Cuisine Association (CCA) on Tuesday.
The top 100 restaurants in China earned 6.36 billion dollars in 2003, a year-on-year rise of 31.3 percent, and contributed to around 6.7 percent of the industry's total operating revenue, the CCA source said.
Brands Inc, running KFC and Pizza Hut, released operating revenue of 9.3 billion yuan (1.12 billion dollars) in China last year, up 31 percent over 2002, the CCA said. It added 233 chain restaurants to its 1,130 in China last year, among which some 1,000 were KFC outlets.
Its major rival, MacDonald's totalled about 600 chain restaurants by the end of last year.
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