ISLAMABAD: Beijing and Islamabad have agreed to reinvigorate Pak-China Investment Company Ltd (PCICL) so that China Development Bank could directly finance private sector to take up energy and infrastructure projects.

The decision was taken in a meeting on Friday between Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and a Chinese delegation led by Deputy Director General of China Development Bank Ms Liu Hui. The delegation also included PCICL’s board of directors.

The two sides agreed that Pakistan-China Economic Corridor related projects including energy and infrastructure should be a good starting point for the private sector to be chipped in through the PCICL.

An official statement quoted Ms Hui as saying that the economic corridor would set a good example of cooperation between the two countries and the China Development Bank was playing an important role in developing bilateral friendship.

The bank would bridge the gap between the private sectors of both the countries, she said and added that Chinese investors wanted to explore Pakistani market as there was a great scope for joint venture to usher in a new shared era of development.

She also conveyed the sentiments of the China Development Bank’s governor to the finance minister.

Dar said China had always been a great friend of Pakistan and the political leaderships of both the countries had a common vision about robust economic cooperation. He said there was a great potential for investment by the private sector of China into energy and infrastructure projects.

He emphasised helping and financing the private sector to achieve economic goals.

The finance minister also briefed the visiting delegation about “the economic progress Pakistan made during the last one year as it achieved all the macroeconomic targets with considerable increase in revenue collection and foreign remittances”.

He said the trade deficit had also declined because of growth in exports and decline in imports while the stock exchange performed very well.

He told the delegation that hopefully the political stability in the country would lead to better performance of the economy during this fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, September 6th , 2014