Chinese company to sign MoU for plying 2000 CNG buses

ISLAMABAD: Foton Motors, a Chinese bus manufacturing company, would sign an MoU with the Sindh Government on Saturday for provision and operations of 2000 CNG buses in the province.

This was informed during president's meeting with a Chinese delegation of Foton Motors Group -- a commercial vehicle manufacturer of China- headed by its Deputy President Ye Zhaoyou that called on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.

The delegation of Foton Motors Group included Zhang Jun, Global Marketing Director of Foton AUV Bus, Ms. Liu Liran, GM of Holly Foton Co, Ltd, Ms. Xu Qingli, Marketing Manager South Asia, Zhao Bin, Service Manager of Foton AUV Bus, Joseph Verghese, MD and CEO of Foton Pak and Perry T. Blackerby, President Foton America.

Pakistan side included Secretary General to the President M Salman Faruqui, Advisor to PM for Industries Muhammad Basharat Raja, Chairman BOI Saleem H. Mandviwala and Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar besides other senior officials.

The meeting was informed that Foton Motor Group of China established its Pakistan chapter in 2008 in Karachi and was undertaking its business operations since then in the country.

The company had designed modern buses for Pakistan with design feature to meet specific cultural and demographic needs of the country and with a special focus to power the buses with environment friendly fuel such as CNG, LPG and hybrid diesel and H2.

President Asif Ali Zardari welcomed the visiting delegation and appreciated their interest in further exploring business opportunities in Pakistan in the field of bus industry.

He said that it was a matter of great pleasure that the potential of traditional Pak-China equation was now being translated into economic terms and the Chinese companies and businessmen were taking keen interest in exploring business opportunities in Pakistan for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

He highlighted the investment friendly and business opportunities offered by Pakistan in variety of areas including oil and gas, mining, trading, energy, IT & telecom, food and agriculture, SMEs, infrastructure and others.

The president said that their aim was to transform Pakistan into one of the most attractive investment destinations and provide all possible facilitation for promotion of business ventures.

Talking about the transport sector, the president appreciated the role of Foton Pak Bus Company in providing state of the art buses in the main cities of the country.

However, he emphasized, that there was much room to further enhance its business operations in other parts of the country.

Zardari said that with increasing population in the cities, there was an urgent need for upgrading the existing transport network in the mega cities which in turn offers great investment opportunities to the national and international investors.

Ye Zhaoyou briefed president about his company's ventures in Pakistan and informed that the company was awarded contract for 111 CNG buses for Lahore city through Lahore Transport Company which is expected to commence from November this year.

The president appreciated expanding of their operations in the country saying that the success of a foreign transport company was testimony of vast potential present in the country in the field of transport.

He asked the company to undertake bus operations in other major cities of the country including Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Multan to help overcome commuters transportation issues and to improve inter and intra city connectivity.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011