Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday lauded the role of China’s banking sector and its institutions for supporting Pakistan in difficult times.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the second branch of Bank of China in Islamabad, Dar said institutions such as this are “great financial partners of Pakistan.”

The finance minister reiterated that Pakistan has largely come out of the difficult phase.

“We are fairly out of that turbulent phase,” said Dar. “Recently one of the rating agencies has upgraded Pakistan and we are now moving from stability to growth again.”

Dar informed that for the last few years Pakistan is benefiting from a soft facility of RMB30 billion.

“During our last visit to China, I took up the matter of this facility and see if it can be enhanced to RMB40 billion. We were given a positive nod by the Chinese premier that in the next fiscal year, which has started, this would be considered positively,” he said.

Talking about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Dar said that the corridor would benefit masses in the future.

“In the years to come, we would all benefit from this great idea,” he said.

“I am hoping and sure that RMB (the official currency of China) is going to become international very soon. The five countries representing BRICS have started already formalising it and dozens of countries are in the pipeline to join.

“I see RMB would one day be a parallel internationally accepted currency in the financial world,” he added.