GWADAR: The Bank of China, along with other national and international banks, plans to open a branch in Gwadar, said Gwadar Port Authority Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini in a meeting with the president of the Summit Bank, Zaheer Esmail, here on Thursday.

Mr Jamaldini claimed that with the Gwadar Deep Seaport becoming operational, several of the country’s commercial banks were interested in opening branches in the port city and the Bank of China would start doing business from Gwadar shortly — starting with setting up a branch in the city.

“Business and trade activities will flourish in Gwadar with the opening of branches of different national and international banks,” he said, adding that for the time the Gwadar Port Oversees and Port Holding had allowed the opening of two banks in Gwadar and one of them was the Bank of China.

The chairman claimed that work on the Gwadar Free Zone had started. He said the construction work would be completed in the next couple of months. Mr Jamaldini added that the Pakistani and Chinese were working in three shifts to complete the construction of the Gwadar Free Zone as soon as possible.

He disclosed that in the first week of December, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi along with some Chinese ministers would inaugurate the first International expo centre in the free zone. More than 100 Chinese companies are scheduled to participate.

Mr Esmail told Mr Jamaldini that in the middle of September this year, the Summit Bank and the Sindh Bank would merge and it would make the former the second biggest bank in Pakistan.

He added that the Summit Bank had taken keen interest in the social sector and would soon extend soft loans to government employees, small businessmen and fishermen to promote their businesses.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017