Imran Khan says his govt will support Chinese businesses in Pakistan

PTI, Nov 21, 2021, 6:23 PM IST

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that his government will support Chinese businesses in Pakistan on a priority basis as he directed the authorities to immediately resolve the issues related to road connectivity and provision of utilities being faced by investors from China.

Khan made the remarks during his meeting with a Chinese business delegation led by Chen Yan from Challenge Fashion (Pvt) Ltd on Saturday.

”We will support Chinese businesses in Pakistan on a priority basis and are grateful to them for their keen interest in accelerating their investment in special economic zones,” Prime Minister Khan was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

Khan was informed that Chinese businessmen were ready to start operations in the glass, ceramics and IT sectors as OPPO, a leading Chinese consumer electronics and mobile company, is going to set up a mobile sets manufacturing unit and a research and development center in Pakistan.

Its decision to manufacture mobile sets in Pakistan would help the country save a lot of foreign exchange reserves on the import of smartphones and create jobs for tech graduates. The meeting was attended by Energy Minister Mohammad Hammad Azhar, Adviser on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong, and other officials.

In his remarks, Nong acknowledged that many issues had been resolved and great progress had been achieved since the prime minister’s previous meeting with Chinese businessmen on September 13.

”We will send more positive information to China to encourage more Chinese businessmen to invest in Pakistan,” he said.

A Chinese entrepreneur representing OPPO said that the company had already been present in Pakistan for more than seven years and had made around USD 150 million in investment in the country.

He said like other companies, for OPPO too, it was a very good environment in Pakistan to continue to invest there and the interaction with the prime minister helped the swift resolution of the issues.

He thanked the prime minister for helping the Chinese businessmen by extending facilitation to them.

“If anybody comes to me and ask should they invest in Pakistan, I will say yes,” he remarked.