August 26, 2007	Sunday	Sha’aban 12, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Pakistan and China have exchanged list of areas to be offered for services providers under the aegis of the already operational free trade agreement (FTA).

A senior official told Dawn on Saturday that these lists were exchanged during the second round of negotiations on the services chapter of the FTA held recently in Beijing at a technical level.

Under the trade on services, both countries would have to identify areas for trade in the positive list. However, both sides also requested for market access in the services sector and also agreed on revised list to be exchanged within a month.

The official said Pakistan had requested for market access for local banks in China and had also asked for technology transfer and on job training of locally-hired human resources as well as training of labour.

It is expected that the next round on the services sector will be held by end of the current calendar year and negotiations will be wrapped up in the next couple of meetings.

The official said Pakistan would seek more commitments in maximum sectors to gain more market access for Pakistani services suppliers. “We would also be seeking foreign investment from China under the services sector negotiations,” the official added.

The potential areas for services liberalisation include finance, telecom, tourism, health, education, transportation, road, energy distribution services. However, Pakistani services providers could get maximum benefits only in case China train local Pakistani employees.