January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 25: The Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) and DF Deutsche Forfait AG have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch a first of its kind export finance facility in Pakistan.

The signing ceremony was held at the Governor House here on Friday night in the presence of caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro.

The MoU was inked by Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), Pakistan, Badar Kazmi, and Chairman of Deutsche Forfait, Ulrich Wippermann.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Abdul Qadir Halepota were present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said: “We are here doing things that are going to make investment systematically easy.”

He also spoke of the tremendous opportunities that exist here and assured that the government and the institutions would extend every possible support.

Mr Soomro expressed pleasure on the confidence shown in Pakistan by the Standard Chartered and the Deutsche Forfait.

He hoped that they would find more avenues of investment here.

The MoU is a first of its kind export finance facility in Pakistan. Its key feature is to facilitate documentary export collection with a prepayment arrangement.—APP