BEIJING - Improvements to collaboration between the banking industries of China and Pakistan became effective on Wednesday following ratification, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said.

The banking service protocol of the service trade agreement for the free trade area (FTA) between the two countries was signed in April when President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan.

It will improve the liberalization of the service trade of China-Pakistan FTA, with easier financing for enterprises and ensuring the smooth running of major governmental projects such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the MOC said.

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southwest Pakistan's deepwater Gwadar Port with northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.