BEIJING, July 3: Chinese overall investment in Pakistan has exceeded $4 billion, with gradual improvement in the trade.

This was stated by Chea Wen, a senior official of the Chinese Commerce Ministry while addressing a seminar on "Pakistan investment and Trade" held here on Saturday.

Chinese government was encouraging its entrepreneurs to invest in Pakistan, he said, and expressed the hope that the quantum of investment and trade would increase in the coming months. Pakistan, he added, could be part of the $35 billion of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment.

Statistics show that the Chinese direct investment in Pakistan between July 2003 to May 2004 was over $13.8 million. The quantum of trade between the two countries has risen by 30 per cent and stood at about $2.5 billion in the recent years.

The seminar was attended by the representatives of some prominent Chinese companies. It was also addressed by Pakistan Ambassador Riaz Mohammad Khan, a senior Pakistani official from Ministry of Commerce Yaseen Tahir, former Chinese ambassador in Islamabad Lu Shu Lin and Commercial consular Shahid Mahmood.

Ambassador Riaz said Pakistan was actively considering to set up an exclusive investment zone, where Chinese businessmen would enjoy good investment services and preferential policies. The Chinese government, he said, had agreed to provide $500 million preferential credit to support Chinese investment in Pakistan.

More than 60 Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) and other major private companies have permanent offices in Pakistan. These steps, he said showed that the Chinese businessmen's participation in economic activities in Pakistan.

A very large number of Chinese SOEs are working to help improve Pakistan's infrastructure facilities. The contracts for the development projects are worth billions of dollars in the areas such as hydropower, railway upgrades, and mining.

He said there was a great amount of goodwill in Pakistan for Chinese companies and for the Chinese people. He assured that they would find a conducive environment in Pakistan to get due return of their investment.

Yaseen Tahir briefed the participants about investment opportunities in Pakistan with the help of video slides. Pakistan, he said provides unmatchable facilities to the investors without any restriction on the quantum of investment/equity and they were free to repatriate their profit.

He highlighted the Pakistan's efforts undertaken forincreasing the economic growth through investments.-APP