BEIJING, Aug 4 (APP): Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Prof Ahsan Iqbal held important meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss agenda for Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to China and next phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) ahead of the 14th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) likely to take place shortly.
Ahsan Iqbal, currently in China on official visit, also met the new chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) who has recently assumed office.
Addressing the local media, he said that China and Pakistan are cooperating in number of socio-economic projects that are impacting lives of the poor and underdeveloped areas.
“We discussed to make this partnership more effective and also expand its framework so that we can make real impact in the lives of the people through interventions which will give them opportunities of livelihood and also promote opportunities for students from the backward areas to come and study in China.”
The minister also met with the Chinese companies that are working in Pakistan and discussed with them opportunities for further investment and enhancing the cooperation in business to business field.
He said that in next phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the two countries are emphasizing on more business to business cooperation. The first phase focused greatly on building the infrastructure through very heavy investment of $25 billion. We were able to install more than 8000 megawatts of energy and construct motorways and highways, which provided very critical connectivity in Pakistan.
We also established a fiber optic link, which opened an information highway between Pakistan and China. We have developed projects in Gwadar, but all of this investment largely focused infrastructure development.
Ahsan Iqbal said that now in the second phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, we are shifting our focus more towards business to business cooperation, development of agriculture potential and modernizing agriculture with using latest technology and assistance from China.
“We have recently approved a scheme to train 1000 agriculture experts in modern technology in China, of which first batch of 300 experts has already completed their training and gone back to Pakistan while second batch is in China. We hope that this will help modernize Pakistan’s agriculture,” he added.
“We are also emphasizing greater cooperation in industrial sector to raise the level of Pakistani economy from agrarian economy into an industrial economy. We see a structural transformation in Pakistan’s economy to focus more towards industrialization that will not only provide more job opportunities, but also help us build Pakistan’s export potential,” he added.
Pakistan, he said, has very good quality products in different categories like agriculture, garments, sports goods and surgical goods and in many other areas.
The minister also held meetings with the new chairman of China’s Nuclear Authority and the Space Agency and discussed how the two sides can further strengthen cooperation in peaceful nuclear use of technology by extending nuclear power into agriculture, health and other sectors.
Both sides also discussed to enhance cooperation in the space exploration because this is the future technology that will shape the future of mankind and also the economies. Pakistan is very vulnerable as far as disasters are concerned. So, satellite technology is critical for us to be prepared in our response to disasters and in planning our agriculture.
Pakistan, he said, look forward to greater cooperation with the Chinese side in earth observation satellite and hopes that in 2026, its first astronaut will go into space with the help of a Chinese mission and will visit the space center in the orbit. That will be a milestone for Pakistan.
And later, with Chinese help, we will send and land a rover on moon. That will be yet another milestone. And Pakistan also aims to have its own landing on the moon by 2035.
“Pakistan and China have a very strong iron brother relationship that expands from economic field to political field, exploration of space to every area of defense. And finally, let me acknowledge and say that how proud we are to have a friend like China that has always stood with us in every situation,” he added.
Ahsan Iqbal highlighted that in the recent crisis with India, China stood with Pakistan like a rock and like a great wall. So this is iron brother and great wall relationship. Just as history has not been able to move great wall from face of the earth and it is visible even from the moon, from the orbit. Similarly, Pakistan-China friendship, iron brotherhood is also visible to rest of the world like great wall is visible from the orbit.
He hoped that this relationship and this iron brotherhood will grow with every passing day.
In the next year, Pakistan-China will hold very special events to mark 75 years of remarkable friendship and relationship.
To a question regarding participation of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s attendance of SCO summit, he said that region has seen a lot of uncertainty in the past. It is important that the leadership in SCO Summit must ponder how we can de-escalate conflicts in different regions of the world because conflicts can bring consequences for countries which are not even in that region.
“We have seen how Ukraine and Russia conflict has impacted even economies in Africa, Latin America, Asia, even though they were not in Europe because that disrupted the global supply chains,” he said.
He said that it is very important that leadership that will meet will certainly see that how SCO can play a role to bring about de-escalation in different parts of the world.
Secondly, we also need more collaboration between different countries. We need more trade, more people-to-people contact so that we can promote understanding among different cultures, among different countries.
He hoped that this SCO summit will also be able to see that how we can promote greater cooperation among member states that will allow them to promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural exchanges and educational exchanges for engagement at level of youth.
There are then global challenges that we are all facing and that requires a unity in outlook among all members of the international community. There are conflicts happening and recently Israel attacked Baitul Maqdas that fueled more tension in that region and Israel’s attacks on Gaza constitute breach of all human rights and all international law. And these conflicts again have the potential to escalate. So he hoped that this will be a very important meeting at an important time.
Ahsan Iqbal informed that on September 4, there will be Pakistan-China Business Conference in Beijing that will coincide with the visit of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
“We are expecting more than 250 companies from Pakistan to attend this event and likewise we expect more than 200 companies from China to attend this event. This will be an important event in which there will be a matchmaking between different sectors of industries like electric vehicles, chemicals, agriculture, IT, EVs, chemical and petrochemical. All these different areas offer opportunities for both Pakistan and Chinese enterprises to work together for joint ventures, to partner with each other,” he added.
There are also companies coming in the solar energy field where there again we are looking at having more manufacturing facilities in Pakistan. There will be great cost advantage for Chinese companies to operate, he added.