To boost Pak-China economic activities in various sectors, the Board of Investment (BoI) on Saturday hosted a Business Corporation Summit here which was attended by almost 260 Chinese delegates and 150 Pakistani businessmen. Inaugurating the summit, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the Pak-China summit would boost bilateral trade between the two countries.
He said that Pakistan offers liberal and investment-friendly policies in different sectors of the economy and provides opportunities to business communities of both sides to interact for boosting economic relations. He also announced that his government had declared 2011 as the ''Year of Pak-China Friendship'' as they wanted to benefit from the progress and development made by China.
He said that Pakistan has huge potential of attracting investment in various sectors like energy, infrastructure and agriculture and Chinese investors could take advantage of the opportunities for the mutual benefits. He also assured the visiting delegates that the government would extend all necessary assistance in this regard. In ''B-2-B'' meeting, the business communities of the two sides expressed their resolve that they would benefit from each other''s experience in various sectors.
According to BoI, it is expected that ''B-2-B- meeting of business community of both sides would fetch $25 billion investment into the country. "Fourteen memorandums of understanding were signed during the summit in different sectors", BoI Chairman Saleem Mandviwala said. He said that priority sectors for investment from China included oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, power, IT and telecom, chemicals, textile manufacturing, engineering goods, textile machinery, assembly, electronics, automotive, agricultural implements, agro-based industry, pesticides, cool chains, food and fruit processing and packaging, livestock and dairy farming. Commerce Minister Amin Faheem also accompanied the finance minister.