ISLAMABAD: A 12-member delegation of Chinese companies led by Wang Zihai, President, Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) to explore possibilities of joint ventures and business opportunities in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy.
The delegation was representing energy, real estate and construction, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, textiles industry, agriculture science and technology, furniture, fertilizers, cement and others sectors.
Speaking at the occasion, Wang Zihai, President, Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Chinese companies were taking more interest in Pakistan for business opportunities and purpose of their current visit was to interact with Pakistani counterparts to explore new avenues of mutual cooperation.
He said CPEC would be helpful to Pakistani SMEs as it would provide them good opportunities to join hands with Chinese counterparts and promote business with Middle East, Africa and other regions.
He said, CPEC would start a new era of economic development and prosperity in Pakistan and would be beneficial for the whole region.
He said more Chinese companies were interested to visit Pakistan and Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce would encourage with them in such pursuits to further promote business linkages and bilateral trade between the two countries. In his welcome address, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, ICCI said that China was the largest trading partner of Pakistan and bilateral trade had surpassed $ 16 billion in 2015, which was encouraging.
However, he said both countries had had still great potential to improve bilateral trade and enhanced connectivity between their private sectors would help realizing these goals.
He stressed that more Chinese companies should come to Pakistan to invest in CPEC projects.
He said that Pakistan was providing easy access to Chinese companies in its market and China should reciprocate similar facility to Pakistani business community.
He said that Pakistan’s economy offered tremendous investment opportunities to Chinese investors in many sectors including energy, infrastructure development, real estate, furniture, medical science & technology, chemicals, fertilizers and cement and they should bring technology and set up industrial units in Pakistan.
Khalid Malik, Senior Vice President, Tahir Ayub Vice President ICCI, Mian Akram Farid, Mian Shaukat Masud, Naeem Siddiqui, Zikria A Zia, Mubashar Rana, Aamir Waheed, Khalid Chaudhry and others also spoke at the occasion and urged for establishing direct contacts between private sectors of both countries to strengthen bilateral trade relations.
