Chinese investors were keen to set up industrial park, power generation plants and joint ventures in many sectors in Pakistan as they considered Pakistan a potential market for business and investment. This was observed by Deng Jihai, Chairman, International Green Economy Association of China while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Wednesday.
He visited ICCI at the head of a 20 member Chinese delegation and held B2B meetings with local counterparts. The delegation was representing various sectors including power generation, biomass energy, industrial park development, agriculture, food processing, logistics, consultation services, textiles and garments, ship building, real estate, biotechnology, medical science and others.
Deng Jihai said that his Association has already brought three delegations to Pakistan and purpose of such visits was to study Pakistan's market and explore opportunities for investment and joint ventures in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. He said CPEC summit would be held in May this year and they would present report of their visits to Pakistan to the said Summit. He said Chinese delegation members were interested in putting up industrial units of their relevant sectors in Pakistan like small and big power plants, ships construction, food processing units etc.
He said ICCI should also send its delegation to China as his country offered good investment opportunities to Pakistani investors.In his welcome address, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that CPEC project has put both countries on a long-term partnership and added that private sector of Pakistan was keen to enter into joint ventures with Chinese counterparts in this historic project.
He said bilateral trade between Pakistan and China was growing steadily, but balance of trade was heavily in favour of China. He said China was making imports of billions of dollars every year to meet needs of its domestic industry and emphasised that it should focus on enhancing imports from Pakistan to reduce the current bilateral trade imbalance with our country.
He apprised of the Chinese delegation about investment opportunities in various sectors of Pakistan's economy including power generation, agriculture, infrastructure development, real estate, biotechnology, medical science and many other areas. He urged that more Chinese investors should come to Pakistan with technology transfer to invest and set up joint ventures in Pakistan in areas of interest.He assured that ICCI would provide all possible co-operation to Chinese investors in such efforts. Khalid Malik Senior Vice President ICCI and others also spoke at the occasion. At the end, both sides held B2B meetings.