A Pakistani businessman, along with three other foreigners, was issued the first work visas for Pakistanis valid for five years by the administration of China’s Yiwu city in Zhejiang province.

Mohammad Arif and three nationals of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jordan were the first batches granted the First Class work permit by the Exit-Entry Administration of the Bureau of Yiwu’s Municipal Public Security Bureau under the new visa policy.

Before this policy, businessmen used to be issued work visas to Pakistanis for one year only.

Talking to APP, Mohammad Arif said that he and his family were settled in Yiwu and imported various goods from Pakistan.

He said the local government had promised to issue the five-year permit to 200 businessmen, and he was part of the first batch issued by the Yiwu administration.

Yiwu is the world’s largest consumer goods purchasing center, with an area of 4.7 million square meters. It has 70,000 booths and sells 1.7 million goods of various kinds.

Over 400,000 overseas businessmen come to Yiwu each year, and over 13,000 overseas businessmen from more than 100 countries and regions already reside in the city.

Also read: Pakistan Wants to Introduce Duty-Free Import of Electric Cars.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2019