960408

China wants more

exchanges of

private sector

trade teams

KARACHI: An-Chengxin, Vice-Chairman, China Council for Promotion of International Trade, (CCPIT), has urged Pakistani counterparts to arrange and exchange more private business delegations to facilitate commencement of direct trade in order to narrow trade gap between the two countries.

He was speaking at a dinner meeting hosted by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here on Sunday night.

The leader of the 33-member Chinese trade delegation regretted that no Pakistani trade mission or delegation from private sector conducted a single tour of China for the last two to three years while on the other hand CCPIT received a number of business delegations from India during the same period.

He said China "attaches great importance to its relations with Pakistan". It was, therefore, concerned with the trade imbalance between the two countries which could only be increased and levelled if businessmen of both sides started direct trade rather than indirect commercial links, he said.

About trade disputes, he said that "although there exists no overseas reconciliation centre businessmen can consult reconciliation centres established in China for resolution of their trade disputes with their counterparts. "And if you don't get any response from there then refer the cases to arbitration tribunals also set up in China", he added.

He said that the Chinese government had set up a five-year plan to promote its economic collaboration with other countries of the world and CCPIT was also dedicated for promotion of overseas trade. It has 700 branches in China alone while there are 15 representative offices in major countries of the world.

Earlier, Senator Ilyas Bilour, FPCCI chief, in his address of welcome urged China to focus its assistance from public sector of Pakistan to private sector. He said it was time that private sector of two countries came close to each other and collaborated for the establishment of joint projects in various sectors.

He said Pakistan required assistance to generate hydro-power and China could be a great help as it had some 50,000 small hydro-power units. In addition, there was also scope for joint ventures for manufacturing of bulldozers in Pakistan, he added.

He said there were also bright prospects for Chinese investment in areas of agriculture, irrigation, textile machinery manufacturing and electronics.-PPI