China, Pakistan implement banking service protocol

BEIJING: China and Pakistan have improved collaboration between their banking institutions with the implementation of a banking service protocol which is expected to provide easier financing to the USD 46 billion Sino-Pak economic corridor that passes through PoK.

The protocol, part of the service trade agreement for the free trade area (FTA) between the two countries, was signed in April when President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan during which he announced the corridor.

The protocol implementation will improve the liberalisation of the service trade of China-Pakistan FTA, with easier financing for enterprises and ensuring the smooth running of major governmental projects such as the economic corridor, Chinese Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southwest Pakistan's deepwater Gwadar Port with northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.