China to roll over $500 mn loan to State Bank of Pakistan for one more year

China has agreed to roll over a loan of $500 million that it has placed with the State Bank of Pakistan as Islamabad's official foreign currency reserves remain in a precarious position despite taking $44 billion in loans in the past five years.

The Express Tribune reported that the People's Bank of China, through China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), had deposited $ 500 million with the SBP in June 2012.

The loan is going to mature in the first week of June this year, but China has agreed to roll it over for one more year, said sources in the ministry of finance.

Pakistan cannot use the $500 million Chinese deposit and its only purpose is to shore up foreign currency reserves.

According to sources, the loan has been rescheduled at the same old terms. Since the money could not be utilised, the interest rate was only 1 per cent, they said.

During the week ended May 18, the SBP's gross reserves dropped $ 479 million to only $10.32 billion due to payments on account of external debt servicing. The reserves are barely enough for two months of imports and are below the International Monetary Fund's adequacy levels.

It's becoming difficult to get Chinese visas: Pakistan

Business community in Pakistan has expressed its concerns over Chinese visa saying that visas are becoming increasingly difficult to get.
Whereas, a rise in Chinese nationals coming to Pakistan in the wake of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is being noticed, The Dawn reported.

Reportedly, 71,000 Chinese nationals visited Pakistan in 2016, and 27,596 visa extensions were granted in that year, which is up by 41 per cent from a year earlier.

However, it is becoming difficult for Pakistani nationals to get Chinese visas.

Moreover, they are granted only single entry visa, that too with the validity period of three months.

"The Chinese government should review its policy and grant multiple-entry visas to members of the business community with a validity period of at least one year," Pakistan Soap Manufact­urers Association (PSMA) Chairman Abdullah Zaki said.

"Secondly, cumbersome and complex procedures for obtaining a Chinese visa have to be simplified. This will certainly take the existing bilateral trade volume to record-breaking new heights," he added.
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