The Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) and DF Deutsche Forfait AG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch a first of its kind export finance facility in Pakistan. The signing ceremony was held at the Governor House here on Friday night in the presence of the Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro.
The MoU was inked by the Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank, Pakistan, Badar Kazmi, and Chairman of Deutsche Forfait, Ulrich Wippermann. Governor Sindh, Dr Ishrat ul Ibad Khan, Caretaker Chief Minister, former justice Abdul Qadir Halepota, were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said, "we are here doing things that are going to make investment here systematically easy." He also spoke of the tremendous opportunities that exist here and assured that the government and the institutions would extend every possible support.
Soomro also expressed pleasure on the confidence shown in Pakistan by the standard Chartered and the Deutsche Forfait. He also hoped that they would find more avenues of investment here.
The MoU is a first of its kind export finance facility in Pakistan. They key feature of this product is to facilitate documentary export collection with a pre-payment arrangement. This will translate into the primary benefits of reducing the exporter's credit risk thus eliminating bad debts and improving cash flows; providing exporters with greatly improved opportunities to explore and penetrate new markets; significantly enhancing export volumes which directly underscores the government mandate of driving the economy via robust export.