Both friend countries to use Chinese RMB under Long Term Plan (LTP) for 2017-2030
Pakistan and China agreed on saying goodbye to United States dollar for bilateral trade, loans and repayments as well as profit repatriation purposes.
According to the details, both the countries agreed to make use of the Chinese currency RMB under Long Term Plan (LTP) for 2017-2030.
The announcement was made by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal during the inauguration ceremony of the Long-Term Plan (2017-2030) of the CPEC in Islamabad along with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing.
As Ahsan Iqbal is having Planning and Development ministry, he said RMB or any other currency would not be permitted in Pakistan, however, consideration is being given to using RMB for trade between Pakistan and China only.
He further said it has become necessary for Pakistan to follow China’s economic vision. We have to learn from China, how China with its political stability, how China with its social solidarity and harmony, and how China with the pursuit of its economic policies and vision has become a success story in the world.
Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, who had assumed his office one month back, said that Pakistan is a unique and traditional friend and through the persuasion of One Belt One Road (OBOR) by China, would help regional countries to achieve progress in a coherent manner.
The long-term plan highlighted the main cooperation areas between the neighbouring states including road and rail connections, information network infrastructure, energy, trade and industrial parks, agriculture, poverty alleviation and tourism.
Pakistan-China volume of trade which was $4 billion in 2006-07 reached $13.77 billion in 2015-16 while Pakistan’s exports have jumped to $1.69 billion from $575 million in the same period.
China has already committed to investing $57 billion in Pakistan to finance CPEC as part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative to build a new Silk Road of land and maritime trade routes across more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.