Pakistani minister assures support to Chinese steel firms
Gwadar Pro
Islamabad: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Senator Shibli Faraz has assured two Chinese steel firms of complete support as they contribute towards Pakistan’s prosperity.
Representatives of the two companies, accompanied by a delegation of the local steel industry, met the Federal Minister and discussed the tax issues. The minister assured them that their issues would be resolved on priority basis.
Chinese firms including, Century Steels Pvt. Limited and AL-Haj Asia Star Steel Company Pvt. Ltd have invested in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had inaugurated the first ever Chinese steel unit of 500,000 Million Ton (MT) annual capacity – Century Steels Pvt. Ltd., in the CPEC’s Rashakai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) recently. This was the first investment from any Chinese company in the steel sector. The company is close to starting production.
Al-Haj Asia Star Steel Company Pvt. Ltd. in a joint venture with a Pakistani company and has installed a plant of 500,000 MT in Pakistan. Al-Haj Asia Star Steel is a joint venture formed in 2017 between Pakistani conglomerate Al-Haj Group and China’s Hebei Xingang Iron and Steel Group.
China is poised to become leading foreign investor in Pakistan after the Pakistani government decided to grant special incentives to the Chinese investors to expedite industrialisation in the country.
“China would be leading in making investment in Pakistan due to special concessions for the Chinese investors. These concessions largely include two years business visas and priority to the Chinese investment companies through one window operation,” said a government spokesperson.
Last month, Pakistan launched commercialisation of Rashakai SEZ project under CPEC where China’s enterprise Century Steel Private Limited is making US $ 366 million investment.
Chinese private companies would also be encouraged to make investment in other Special Economic Zones being developed under the CPEC across Pakistan.
China Export and Credit Insurance Corp (SINOSURE) would also play key role in industrialization of Pakistan.
The government aims to encourage joint ventures between the private sectors of the two countries for the transfer of latest technology to Pakistan.
With the private sector investment, process of industrialization in Pakistan would be bolstered in addition to creation of jobs and boost in Pakistan’s exports.
A Chinese company has also unveiled plan to set up a “Pakistan-China Chilli Industrial Park” in Lahore or Karachi.
Pakistan has also signed a number of agreements with Chinese government to benefit from its expertise in agriculture and number projects under the planning stage.
Experts believed this bilateral cooperation would also give tremendous boost to Pakistan’s agriculture sector, which despite being in shambles encompasses 25 per cent of country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Under the multi-billion-dollar CPEC, China has so far invested US $ 13 billion and would be investing US $ 12 billion dollars more over the next few years.
