A Chinese bus manufacturing company, Foton Motors Company, would sign an MoU with Sindh Government on Saturday for provision and operation of 2,000 CNG buses in the city. This was informed during the president's meeting with a Chinese delegation of Foton Motors Group - a commercial vehicle manufacturer of China - headed by its Deputy President, Ye Zhaoyou that called on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.
Ye Zhaoyou briefed the president about his company's ventures in Pakistan and informed that the company was awarded contract for 111 CNG buses for Lahore city through Lahore Transport Company which is expected to commence from 1 November this year. The meeting was informed that Foton Motor Group of China established its Pakistan chapter in 2008 in Karachi and is undertaking its business operations since then in the country. The company has designed state of the art buses for Pakistan with the design feature to meet specific cultural and demographic needs of the country and special focus to power the buses with environment friendly fuel such as CNG, LPG and hybrid diesel and H2.
The president welcomed the visiting delegation and appreciated their interest in further exploring business opportunities in Pakistan in the field of bus industry. He said that it is a matter of great pleasure that the potential of traditional Pak-China equation is now being translated into economic terms and Chinese companies and businessmen are taking keen interest in exploring business opportunities in Pakistan for mutual benefit of the two countries. He highlighted the investment friendly and business opportunities offered by Pakistan in a variety of areas including oil and gas, mining, trading, energy, IT & telecom, and food and agriculture, SMEs, infrastructure and other sectors. He said that their aim is to transform the country into one of the most attractive investment destinations and provide all possible facilitation for promotion of business ventures in this regard.
Speaking about the transport sector, the president appreciated the role of Foton Pak Bus Company in providing state of the art buses in the main cities of the country. However, he emphasised that there is much room to further enhance its business operations in other parts of the country. The delegation thanked the president for meeting them. They also thanked the government for providing them opportunities to extend their business operations in the country.
The delegation of Foton Motors Group included Zhang Jun, Global Marketing Director of Foton AUV Bus, Ms Liu Liran, GM of Holly Foton Co, Ltd, Ms Xu Qingli, Marketing Manager South Asia, Zhao Bin, Service Manager of Foton AUV Bus, Joseph Verghese, MD and CEO of Foton Pak, and Perry T. Blackerby, President Foton America. The Pakistan side included M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Muhammad Basharat Raja, Advisor to PM for Industries, Saleem Saleem H. Mandviwala, Chairman BoI, and Spokesperson to President, Farhatullah Babar besides other senior officials. -PR