BEIJING, Oct 6: The Habib Bank Limited has opened a representative office in Beijing to facilitate the Chinese entrepreneurs to undertake joint ventures in Pakistan. The branch office will help them provide banking facilities including credit, said Mohammad Aslam, who has taken over as the bank’s chief representative in China.

“The banking service has been made available to the Chinese businessmen in accordance with the government’s policy to step up trade and investment activities between the two friendly countries,” said Aslam while talking to APP here on Thursday.

It will also help promote cooperation between the banking sectors of the two countries, he added. A representative office of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is already working in China. The China Development Bank (CDB) and NBP have recently agreed to closely co-operate for the benefit of the two countries.

The prospects of mutual cooperation in the field of project financing and other related areas with the Pakistani banks are quite good, said an official of the CDB.

According to Liu Mingkang, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, China may ease restrictions on ownership of its domestic lenders by foreign banks by the end of next year as it further liberalizes the industry. —APP