The Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) has demanded a separate counter in Chinese Embassy for business community visiting China to take part in upcoming international trade and economic fairs there. The step would help facilitate businessmen from Rawalpindi and Islamabad for making the process easy.
Businessmen of Rawalpindi region during a meeting made the demand with Commercial Counsellor of China in Islamabad Ma Changlin, First Secretary Kov Wenbin and Attache Chen Xin here. The Chinese delegation was on visit at the RCCI on the invitation of senior executives in the chamber.
Speaking on the occasion, Jalil Malik said endeavours to further enhance interaction of private sectors from Rawalpindi region and Xinjiang province of China has got a visible momentum in the past few months and a number of steps have been taken by both sides. "The participation in the grand Kashgar Fair 2005 by this chamber was a great milestone in this journey", he added.
He said RCCI was very keen in retaining this interaction and working co-ordination, as they were very zealous to tap investment opportunities in Kashgar thanks to the tempting facilities offered by China.
The RCCI office bearers and members of China committee later in an open discussion took number of issues with the visiting dignitaries.
The RCCI committee members while apprising the Commercial Counsellor of difficulties being faced by Pakistani businessmen in acquiring Chinese visa suggested a separate counter should be set up to deal with such applicants swiftly. The Chinese team agreed and said the matter would be taken up with relevant authorities. They also agreed that traders recommended by the RCCI should be considered for visa on priority. The both sides also discussed confusion in duties on various imports and export items and agreed that custom departments of both sides should be furnished with a uniform list of duties. It was also agreed that trucks of respective sides should also transport the goods from Sust to Kashgar and vice versa. At present, Chinese trucks only deal with Chinese goods and Pakistani trucks with only Pakistani ones.
The RCCI team citing the investment of Pakistani investors in Kashgar asked China embassy to arrange Chinese business language courses in Islamabad, so that communication gap could be narrowed.
The participation in impending Urmqi fair and import of livestock from China also came under discussion. Chinese Commercial Counsellor Ma Changlin said that China welcomed Pakistani investors in China but he advised the Pakistani businessmen to keep their business as transparent as possible so that the image of China and Pakistan could not be damaged.
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