BEIJING /ISLAMABAD - China on Monday warmly welcomed Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif’s visit and said it looked
forward to further advancing
high-level strategic cooperation
between the two countries and
bringing more fruitful outcomes
from Sino-Pak friendship to the
benefit of the two people.
“Tomorrow, Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif’s visit will begin. China warmly welcomes
him and looks forward to further advancing our high-level
strategic cooperation and bringing more fruitful outcomes from
our friendship to the benefit of
the two people,” Chinese Foreign
Ministry Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said during his briefing held
here at the International Press
Center (IPC) on Monday.
The prime minister will arrive in
China on a two-day official visit on
Tuesday (today) at the invitation
of Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang. A
high-level delegation will accompany the prime minister who will
be on his first visit to China since
assuming office in April 2022.
Responding a question, the
spokesperson said that China
highly appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks
about China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) and his expectation to the visit.
“The prime minister said in a
recent interview that CPEC has
made great development and he
also expressed his expectation
for the upcoming China’s visit.
“We believe they show the importance he (the prime minister) attaches to the visit to
China, high-quality of China-Pakistan relations and deep friendship between our two peoples”
the spokesperson commented.
Zhao Lijian said that no matter
how the international or domestic
situations had evolved, China Pakistan friendship had been carried
on from generation to generation.
“Our two countries have always
supported each other on issues
concerning respective major interests and have stood together
and help each other in the face of major natural disasters,” he added. He said that the Chinese side
would also like to take this opportunity to commend the major
outcomes of CPEC.
‘ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’
The spokesperson said that as
a flagship program of the Belt
and Road Initiative (BRI), the
CPEC has become a landmark
of China-Pakistan cooperation,
adding, “It has boosted economic development, improved people’s livelihoods and generated
positive socio-economic effects
in Pakistan.”
Zhao Lijian said that recently, the 11th meeting of the CPEC
Joint Cooperation Committee
(JCC) had successfully been held.
Multiple common understandings were arranged about future
development of CPEC.
This is PM Shehbaz Sharif’s
first visit to China since assuming office in April 2022 and follows his meeting with President
Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan on September 16, 2022. A high-level
delegation will accompany the
prime minister, the PM Office
said in a statement on Monday.
The prime minister will be
among the first leaders to visit China following the historic 20th National Congress of
the Communist Party of China. “The prime minister’s visit represents the continuity of
frequent leadership level exchanges between Pakistan and
China,” the PM Office said.
During his stay, the prime
minister will meet President
Xi Jinping and hold delegation-level talks with Premier Li
Keqiang. The two sides will review the All-Weather Strategic
Cooperation Partnership and
exchange views on regional
and global developments. “The
visit is also expected to advance the wide-ranging bilateral cooperation agenda with
the conclusion of a number of
MoUs/Agreements in diverse
areas, and consolidate the momentum of CPEC cooperation
in the wake of the 11th meeting
of the CPEC Joint Cooperation
Committee (JCC) on October
27, 2022,” the statement added.
‘Ambassador Nong Rong calls
on PM’
Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif on Monday held an indepth meeting with Chinese
ambassador Nong Rong encompassing diverse matters
ahead of his two-day official
visit to China starting Tuesday.
It was highlighted in the meeting that the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to China
would further strengthen trade
and economic ties, the PM Office said. Special Assistant to
PM Tariq Fatemi also attended
the meeting. ‘China’s development model’
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said he looked
forward to meeting the Chinese
leadership for a series of “productive and fruitful meetings”
aimed at boosting business,
strategic and people-to-people
relations.
Shehbaz Sharif, who is set to
embark on a two-day visit to
China on Tuesday, said Pakistan strongly needed to emulate the Chinese model of development for its sustainable
progress and prosperity.
Addressing here at the first
steering committee meeting
of the Pakistan China Business
and Investment Forum (PCBIF), he emphasised creating
favourable environment for
building a business-to-business relationship.
“Let’s join hands and move
forward to create a win-win
situation for the Chinese and
Pakistani businessmen and investors,” he said. The prime
minister mentioned the huge
potential existing between the
two countries and called for
streamlining the business procedures in Pakistan to benefit from China being the second-largest economy in the
world.
He termed the China Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC) a
game-changer for development
in Pakistan with billions of dollars of investment already committed by Chinese companies.
He also recalled how the
CPEC projects resulted in helping Pakistan overcome its massive power outages.
Pacing up the CPEC projects,
he said, would not only boost
dividends for Pakistan but also
increase the country’s business
presence in China.
He stressed the relocation of
the labour-intensive Chinese
industry to Pakistan in view of
the cheap local labour by establishing Special Economic
Zones, calling it a win-win scenario for the business houses
of both countries.
In the agriculture sector, he
proposed learning from the
Chinese modern techniques to
increase yield and establish in
this regard agro-based industrial houses.
Shehbaz Sharif expressed
confidence that launched in
January, the PCBIF would promote business linkages besides
identifying promising investment opportunities to nurture
the business environment between the two countries.
He expressed gratitude to
China for being one of the largest donors of relief assistance
for the flood-affected people in
Pakistan and also for setting up
an air bridge for the supply of
tents, food, and medicine.
He lauded the efforts of Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong
for his immense contribution towards strengthening Pak-China relations in diverse fields. Federal Minister
for Planning, Development
and Special Initiatives Dr Ahsan Iqbal terming Pakistan and
China as iron brothers stressed
the need to further exploit the
potential of their economic cooperation.
He said the CPEC had added a
new dimension to the bilateral
relations of Pakistan and hoped
that PCBIF would encourage
Chinese investment in Pakistan
because the future belonged to
“turning the iron brotherhood
into economic partnership”.
He urged the PCBIF to work
towards the inclusion of Pakistani enterprises into China’s
global supply chain.
“The best help China can provide to Pakistan is to help improve its export potential,” he
said, adding that the government looked forward to building a robust private sector
partnership with Chinese enterprises.
In this regard, he assured removing bottlenecks in a way to
attract Chinese investors.
Federal Minister for Board
of Investment Chaudhry Salik
Hussain said BOI was fostering
business cooperation between
Pakistan and China and also
signed a framework agreement
on promoting Special Economic Zones and relocation of industries to Pakistan.
Aimed at industrial cooperation, he said, the BOI had
drafted a set of joint initiatives
which would be submitted to
the Chinese investors and enterprises during the visit of PM
Shehbaz Sharif to China. Chinese Ambassador and Patron
PCBIF Nong Rong expressed
satisfaction with the pace of
work of the forum which included the holding of first-ever
meeting of steering committee
and the launch of an exclusive
website. He said China was always ready to support Pakistan in difficult times and mentioned the solidarity shown by
the Chinese leadership for Pakistan in the wake of the unprecedented flood disaster resulting in the loss of lives and
property.
In line with the directive of
Chinese President Xi Jinping,
he said the country would continue to provide flood relief assistance to Pakistan.
He said China’s relief assistance had reached 644 million
RMB and added that a medical
team from China was already in
Pakistan to help out the people
in distress. He said that during
the upcoming visit of PM Shehbaz Sharif to China, the leadership would announce further
assistance for Pakistan.
He said Pakistan and China
supported each other, no matter what the international or
domestic situation turned into.
“The Chinese side is committed to playing the role in the development under the umbrella
of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” he said.
The Secretary PCBIF highlighted that the forum was extending facilitation to the Chinese and Pakistani investors
through an exclusive website
providing information about
the business procedures to ensure an optimal environment.