BEIJING, Dec. 8 (INP): China is confident that its imports from Pakistan will show a reasonable increase in the coming year, following the outcome of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to Beijing.

The PM’s visit was highly productive for enhancing mutual exchanges in the business sector. It was agreed that the two sides will find out new avenues of bilateral cooperation in the economic sector that helps to overcome the existing trade deficit in their bilateral trade, officials said here on Saturday.

It is hoped that in year 2019 there will be more and more interaction between the business communities of the two countries to get increased Pakistan’s trade toChina.

It was most encouraging factor that Pakistan and Chinahave agreed to trade in their local currencies in an effort to reduce dependence on the US dollar for increasing their business activities.

The currency swap arrangement (CSA) between State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and People’s Bank of China(PBOC) had already been extended for a period of 3 years in respective local currencies. It will be most facilitating for the Pakistani traders to sell their products in the Chinese market.

Customs data shows that China's overall trade has continued to grow through the first 11-months of the year, and looks set to continue on its upward trajectory, and it is hoped theChina’s economic rise will benefit the regional countries, including Pakistan, Gao Feng, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce.

The latest figures from China's Ministry of Commerce show that the country's total imports and exports between January and the middle of November this year surpassed the total volume of trade recorded in 2017. The spokesperson said the country's expected growth in foreign trade next year has strong underpinnings despite some external challenges. "As the country continues to push forward with supply-side structural reform, the structure of China's exports and imports will be further optimized, while the growth potential of imports will be boosted. Although external uncertainties such as protectionism and unilateralism will add challenges to trade growth next year, the trend towards economic globalization remains unchanged, and demand from major markets continues to expand," said Gao Feng.

"The trade data reveals that the diversification of the country's trade market has accelerated, and so fluctuations in certain markets will have a limited impact on the country's broad growth in trade.

And China's import demand continues to increase. Next year, the country's foreign trade growth will have a strong underpinning, and will step up to high-quality growth."

The latest report from the International Monetary Fund predicts that the global trade in goods and services will tail off in 2019, but is still expected to grow by 4 percent.

Gao Feng said that next year China will further intensify its efforts to implement policies designed to ease foreign investment restrictions and improve the business environment.

"We will keep a close eye on the foreign trade situation. As for the uncertainty and unstable factors in international affairs, and the difficulties that domestic enterprises may face, we will keep streamlining administration, delegating powers, and optimizing services.

To further facilitate trade and business, we'll reduce the cost of imports and exports, develop new formats of trade, and further diversify the markets," said Gao Feng.

By the end of March 2019, China will lift all barriers to foreign investments not included on the negative list, and launch special investigations to ensure that foreign investors are treated fairly in China's domestic market.