中國投資推高巴基斯坦股市

Late last year, three Chinese exchanges jointly submitted the highest bid for a 40 per cent stake in the Pakistan Stock Exchange. They paid alMost Rs9bn, or $85m. Weeks after the deal, the market hit an all-time high.

去年底，中國三家交易所聯合提出報價，收購巴基斯坦證券交易所(Pakistan Stock Exchange, PSX) 40%的股權。它們報價近90億巴基斯坦盧比（合8500萬美元），爲最高報價。該交易完成數週後，巴基斯坦股市創歷史最高紀錄。

This year has been a good time to be a broker in Karachi, especially after index provider MSCI announced last summer it was restoring the country to emerging market status after downgrading it to frontier status after the financial crisis. In March, local brokers with stakes in the PSX received cheques when the Chinese transaction closed. Since then, they have been sending roadshows to financial capitals to sing the praises of the Pakistani market.

今年對卡拉奇的經紀商來說是個好年份，特別是在指數提供商MSCI明晟去年夏天宣佈恢復巴基斯坦的新興市場地位後。在金融危機後，MSCI明晟把巴基斯坦降級至前沿市場。今年3月，當中資收購PSX的交易結束時，在PSX持股的當地經紀商都收到了支票。自那以來，他們在全球各地的金融之都舉行路演，推介巴基斯坦市場。

The Chinese investment in the the Pakistan stock market is not officially part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is itself part of the broader, One Belt, One Road initiative designed to strengthen trade links between China and Europe. Yet the biggest reason to be optimistic about Pakistan is the Chinese investment that is pouring into the country.

中國投資巴基斯坦股市並非“中巴經濟走廊”(CPEC)計劃的正式組成部分；該計劃本身是旨在加強中歐貿易聯繫的“一帶一路”倡議的一部分。不過對巴基斯坦持樂觀態度的最大原因是中國投資不斷涌入巴基斯坦。

More than $55bn is expected to come into the country in the next five years, according to a forecast from the Pakistan Business Council. Beijing is doing for Pakistan what the country cannot seemingly do for itself — provide functioning infrastructure. The most critical of these involves building power plants to solve the country’s perennial energy shortage, which has become one of the biggest constraints on economic growth.

據巴基斯坦商業委員會(Pakistan Business Council)的預測，未來五年預計將有超過550億美元的投資進入巴基斯坦。北京爲巴基斯坦做的事似乎是後者自己無法完成的——提供發揮正常功能的基礎設施。最關鍵的基建工程涉及建設發電廠來解決巴基斯坦長期存在的能源短缺問題；該問題已成爲巴基斯坦經濟增長受到的最大約束之一。