Chinese investors are keen to set up an industrial park, power generation plants and joint ventures (JV) in many sectors of Pakistan as they considered it a potential market for business and investment.

This was observed by International Green Economy Association of China’s Chairman Deng Jihai while addressing business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), a statement issued here stated on Wednesday.

Deng Jihai visited the ICCI at the head of a 20-member Chinese delegation and held B2B meetings with local counterparts. The delegation is representing various sectors including power generation, biomass energy, industrial park development, agriculture, food processing, logistics, consultation services, textiles and garments, shipbuilding, real estate, biotechnology, medical science and others.

Deng Jihai said that his association has already brought 3 delegations to Pakistan and purpose of such visits was to study Pakistan’s market and explore opportunities for investment and joint ventures in CPEC projects.

He said the CPEC summit would be held in May this year and they would present a report of their visits to Pakistan to the said summit.

He said Chinese delegation members were interested in putting up industrial units of their relevant sectors in Pakistan like small and big power plants, ships construction and food processing units.

He said the ICCI should also send its delegation to China as China offered good investment opportunities to Pakistani investors.

In his welcome address, ICCI President Khalid Iqbal Malik said that the CPEC project had put both countries on a long-term partnership and added that private sector of Pakistan was keen to enter into joint ventures with Chinese counterparts in this historic project.

He said bilateral trade between Pakistan and China was growing steadily, but balance of trade was heavily in favour of China.

He said China was making imports of billions of dollars every year to meet the needs of its domestic industry and emphasised that it should focus on enhancing imports from Pakistan to reduce the current bilateral trade imbalance.

He informed the Chinese delegation about investment opportunities in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy including power generation, agriculture, infrastructure development, real estate, biotechnology, medical science and many other areas.

He urged that more Chinese investors should come to Pakistan with technology transfers to invest and set up joint ventures in Pakistan in areas of interest. He assured that the ICCI would provide all possible cooperation to Chinese investors in such efforts.

Khalid Malik, ICCI senior vice president and others also spoke on the occasion.