Saturday, April 10, 2004
China, Pakistan mull FTA
Press Trust of India Beijing, April 10
Close allies Pakistan and China are mulling the establishment of a Free Trade Area (FTA) between the two neighbouring nations, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said on Saturday.
"We talked about the possiblity of establishing a Free Trade Area between Pakistan and China," Kasuri said. India has already launched talks with China on the FTA as well as Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) on March during the first meeting of the Sino-Indian Joint Study Group (JSG) established after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit in June last year.
"Pakistan welcomes more investment from China, especially from the private sector, as China is now not only a large investment receiver, but a large investor," Kasuri, who was on a three-day visit to China that ended on Friday, said.
"We talked about the specific projects which will be built with the 500 million US dollars loan China gave to Pakistan last year," he said, adding: "these mainly will involve infrastructure projects."
China offered a preferential loan of 500 million US dollars to Pakistan for bilateral trade and economic co-operation during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to Beijing last November.
During his three-day official visit, Kasuri held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing and met Premier Wen Jiabao.
The talks focused on economic co-operation between Pakistan and China, the rebuilding of Afghanistan and fighting terrorism, he said. He also made a stopover in Shanghai on Wednesday to discuss trade issues.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.