The first Pakistani bank has opened a branch in the Chinese capital Beijing, joining a small club of foreign banks that operate in the country. The Habib Bank Limited (HBL), one of Pakistan’s largest private banks, has opened its branch in Beijing, according to a statement released in Karachi on Monday. The inauguration ceremony, the statement added, was attended by clients, regulators and senior bank executives, apart from Jameel Ahmad, the deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, who virtually joined the ceremony. With the opening of the branch, HBL has become one of the three banks from South Asia and Middle East North Africa region to offer "end-to-end RMB intermediation" in China. Since 2017, the bank has already been operating in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, which borders Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, a key route of the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Source: The North Africa Journal March 22, 2021 14:29 UTC