| Pakistan Investment minister holds talks with China CICC to setup Joint Holding Company for infrastructure fund |
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| Friday,June 19,2009 Posted: 23:42 BJT(42 GMT) |
| From:APP Article type:Reproduced |
BEIJING, June 18 (APP): Federal Minister for Investment Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan has held talks here with China International Capital Corporation (CICC) for creating a joint Pakistan China Holding company for project financing in Pakistan. In an interaction with Chinese media here, the Minister said that the proposed company would facilitate financing for Chinese companies intending to make Investments in Pakistan.
This company would establish projects on equity basis, as well rather than acquiring debt, he noted.
“This is one of the ideas that I have shared with Chinese firms here”, the minister said.
He said that he held very fruitful talks with the heads of MCC, China Mobile, China’s State Construction Company, Ministry of Industries and Information Technology and addressed the Chinese Business Forum.
“My interaction with Chinese enterprises was very interesting and successful, as I was able to know what kind of help they needed from his ministry for establishing strong economic ties with their Pakistan counterparts”, he noted.
Regarding his meeting with Ministry of Industries and Information Technology he said that he stressed the need for further expansion of China Mobile operation in Pakistan and introduction of beyond 3-G technology.
“We also want that China Mobile should expand its network in rural ares in Pakistan” he said.
There is big potential in telecommunication sector, Minister Waqar said and added that we have the population of 160 million people, but there were only 90 million subscribers, so we want to expand telecommunication network so that every body in Pakistan enjoy this modern mean of communication.
To encourage the business activities of cellular companies, Minister Investment said that the present government has announced incentives in the federal budgets 2009-10.
The minister said that his interaction with the MCC was to explore possibilities for construction of dams and new road networks. The company, Minister Waqar said has already presence in Pakistan in many projects.
He said that Pakistan is also working for exploring the possibility of constructing a tunnel along with KK highways, so that we could not only bring oil and gas through pipelines from this channel, but all other utilities like rails, road links and optic fiber are also made available there. These facilities, he said our Chinee brether can also avail.
Minister also offered the Chinese side to participate in the affordable housing scheme announced by the Prime Minister. He said that we want to build 8 million housing units and in the first phase we are going to build one million.
He said that as the government of PPP is committed to provide every body at least one house, we are working on this project on fast track and participation of our Chinese brethren would be most welcomed.
The minister said that the companies in this project would quickly get benefit on their investment as everyone has the desire to have his own house.
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Bilateral Visits
