Dar meets Jiang, sees Gwadar development

[khanboy007]

BEIJING – Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Ishaq Dar on Sunday met Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Jiang Jianqing in Beijing and discussed investment opportunities for the bank in various sectors including infrastructure development of Gwadar.


Jianqing expressed his gratitude to the government of Pakistan for bestowing him with the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam award. He said that he was honored and pledged support to strengthening Pak-China relationship. The minister appreciated ICBC’s continued support and expansion of its operations by opening up new bank branches in Pakistan.


He said that being the 6th largest in terms of population in the world, having sizeable middle class, a vibrant consumer market and owing to its geographic location, Pakistan was an ideal location for enterprises eyeing the regional market. He said that Pakistan ranked better in ease of doing business index among its neighbors.


Together with a liberal investment regime and an enormous natural resource endowment, Pakistan offered promising prospects in assuring attractive investment returns in various sectors including energy, power, mining, agriculture and infrastructure, he said. Dar hoped ICBC’s partnering with enterprises in developing the potential would make it a mutually win-win situation for all parties.


Talking about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor he said that both the countries had agreed to a profile of Early Harvest Projects (EHP). The ICBC could seize the investment opportunities thus available. The minister pointed out that infrastructure development of Gwadar was one key area where the bank’s cooperation could be useful.


Therefore ICBC may consider supporting the entrepreneurs who are interested in installing power stations as IPPs under the rubric of agreed EHP of CPEC.

Dar meets Jiang, sees Gwadar development

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