November 10, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 28, 1428

BEIJING, Nov 9: The China Development Bank (CDB) here on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with the NBP to provide $100 million credit line to it for project financing in Pakistan.

The credit-line, according to National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) sources here, would be utilised for financing projects in power, fertiliser, chemical, telecom, oil and gas and infrastructure. Both banks have also agreed to identify viable projects in Pakistan to be financed jointly.

The credit line will be available to NBP next month and the tenor of credit line is eight years. The MoU was executed by SEVP of NBP Shahid Anwar Khan and General Manager of CDB Xia Qiang.

The NBP and China Development Bank have been cooperating with each other since 2005 following its chairman Chen Yuan’s visit to NBP head office where he held meeting with its president Ali Raza.

Shahid Anwar Khan, speaking on the occasion, pointed out that the execution of MoU shows CDBs long-term commitment towards development of Pakistan’s industrial sector in partnership with the NBP.

The CDB is one of the three largest state policy banks of China and the National Bank is the largest and most profitable commercial bank of Pakistan.

—APP