Punjab National Bank will open representative offices in London, Shanghai and Dubai this fiscal.

''The London office is expected to be operational by the end of this month and offices in Shanghai and Dubai will be functional before March 31, 2004,'' S S Kohli, chairman and managing director, PNB, said in New Delhi on Friday.

The bank plans to convert these offices into full-fledged branches in the due course of time.

PNB has also received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India for two off-shore banking units, one in Noida near Delhi and another at a special economic zone coming up near Mumbai.

The bank already has a representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The international operations of the bank have improved with export-import turnover going up by 16.7 per cent in 2002-02 year-on-year to touch Rs 26,132 crore (Rs 261.32 billion).

The foreign currency non-resident deposits of the bank registered a growth of 13 per cent in 2002-03 over 2001-02.

 (UNI)