‘Naya Pakistan’ expects ten areas of cooperation with China: Ambassador Hashmi

BEIJING, March 24 (APP):Pakistan Ambassador to China, Naghmana Hashmi has listed more than 10 areas that Pakistan expected investment and welcomed cooperation without a break, including renewable energy, electric vehicles, aviation and transportation, telecommunications, distance education, medical facilities, IT, mechanized agriculture and drip irrigation, pest control and dairy industry.

“It is a huge era of opportunities between Pakistan and China. You must take advantage of the opportunities and possibilities which are now opening up in “New Pakistan,” she told in an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).

About the impact of epidemic on the two countries’ economy and trade, Ambassador Hashmi said there was no need to excessively worry about that. “The first and second quarters will be affected, but we should be able to make it up in the third and the fourth quarters. The FTA that has become operational from January this year has already resulted in 17% increase in our exports to China.”

When it came to a proposal on hundreds of Pakistani and Chinese enterprises making joint efforts to achieve small goals of development after the epidemic, she expressed her appreciation, “It’s a very good message. There is no other way of achieving development except when everybody plays his part. The infrastructure projects of the first phase of CPEC have now been completed. The energy shortage is a thing of the past.”

Ambassador Hashmi urged all the entrepreneurs and business people in Pakistan, and urged all the Chinese business strength and companies and enterprises to look at Pakistan, adding, “Now is the time to look at Pakistan. This is the time to actually put your heart and soul and effort towards increasing bilateral investments, bilateral trade and setting up joint ventures.”

On bilateral relations between the two countries, she said, “As President Xi Jinping himself said that gold becomes solid and shining when it goes through fire. The friendship between China and Pakistan has grown stronger and stronger because of the difficult times that it has gone through previously.”

Also this time it had withstood the test of time like a true good neighbour, true all-weather strategic cooperative partner and true iron brother, she said and added, “Our president’s visit shows that Pakistani people will stand by Chinese people in both good times and difficult times. We are very happy to see that China has a lot of good leadership vision, strategy and faith. They have been able to overcome this very difficult epidemic.”

About the decision not to evacuate Pakistanis from China, Ambassador Hashmi talked more about her understanding of the public opinion. “We have 28,000 students in China, of which about 1,200 are in Hubei.”We genuinely felt that our children were safer here than if we were to evacuate them from there. Therefore, a very conscious decision was made.”

But as the time went by, when President Xi said that the Pakistani children in Hubei and in China were like the Chinese children and “we would protect them as our own children, I think that really went a very long way in easing out the concerns and tensions of the parents and the students.”

“Now they realize that it was the best possible decision. They’re very grateful to the government of China for taking such good care of them. So my compliments and my gratitude go out on behalf of Pakistan and on behalf of the entire embassy here for supporting them, for taking care of them. If you ask me, I think the safest place to be in the world these days is China. We made a very conscious decision not to evacuate our students from here,” Ambassador Hashmi stressed again.

Regarding two memorandums of understanding, three exchanged certificates and one exchange of notes signed during President Dr. Arif Alvi’s visit to China, she pointed that Pakistan had a gradient economy and 70% of Pakistani economy was dependent on agriculture.

Therefore, agricultural science and technology played a decisive role in Pakistan’s social and economic development. To bring these two sectors under the effort of CPEC was extremely important both for poverty alleviation and for development.

Ambassador Hashmi introduced that the three exchanged certificates and one exchange of notes related to epidemic prevention supplies and equipment as well as the locust prevention and control which echoed an MOU signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China and the Ministry of National Food Security and Research of Pakistan on strengthening cooperation on plant and disease control.

“China, despite it’s in a very difficult situation, despite being in the war against novel coronavirus epidemic, came out and supported Pakistan to the best of its ability to help us fight this unprecedented attack of locust. It’s a beautiful gift,” she added.

Ambassador Hashmi said that Pakistan’s brown locust originates from Africa. The locust plague was mostly in the east of Pakistan and central Punjab, Pakistan’s grain-producing area. It primarily affected staple crops and cash crops like wheat, rice, maize, etc. As grassland was destroyed, problems of cattle starvation may be emerged.

”We are looking at setting up a research center for pest control. Because where we grow most of our staple crops are hot and humid in summer and that is a kind of condition that actually encourages a lot of different kinds of pests. Besides locust, research on mango and cotton pest outbreak would also be a very good outcome of practical cooperation,” she added.

About kinnow import and establishment of Sino-Pak cold chain for meat, she said, ”It’s very interesting that you mention kinnow. This is a variety that’s very unique in Pakistan. A lot of your imported citrus fruits generally start to come to the market in December. Our kinnows only start to export in the middle and end of January. They are big, sweet, easy to peel, and there’s not too much fiber in them either. I’m sure our Chinese friends will love our kinnows as much as they love our mangoes last year. Large gatherings are not convenient now. Next year definitely we will do a very, very nice kinnow festival.”

Ambassador Hashmi informed that this year’s mango festival would try to include other products also were now available because of the new FTA.

”We are now working out the vital sanitary requirements for the export of meat to China and thinking of establishing cold chain between Pakistan and China. So we are very hopeful that very soon we will be able to get the quarantine certification for the export of meat to China. That would help bilateral trade. That is a very very good market. Similarly, fishery market has picked up again with China. That is another area where we really need to concentrate,” she concluded.