Chinese help in improving exports to curtail current account deficit: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan wanted to improve its exports to curtail the current account deficit.

“Our main export is textile and Chinese help in giving value addition to our products will improve our prospects of exporting finished products in the world market,” he said while talking to Chinese media in Islamabad, ahead of his visit to the neighbouring country.

He will depart for Beijing today for a five-day visit, where he will hold meetings with Chinese leadership including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and others.

A high-level delegation, including Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Asad Umar and others will accompany Khan.

The prime minister said poverty reduction was most important segment of our manifesto and Chinese policies to lift the people from poverty could guide us in cogitating indigenous policies in this area.

He said the way China tackled poverty and corruption was a role model for his country.

Read More: Prime Minister Imran Khan to depart for China today

PM Imran said Pakistan could learn from China more than any other country and Chinese experiences would help improve the issues the country was currently facing.

He said Pakistan was endowed with rich natural resources that had not been utilised.

Imran Khan said corruption was the biggest enemy of Pakistan and we needed special skills to track the white-collar crime.

He said investment in industrial zones as well as in the socio-economic development was very important for improving the overall economy.

“The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a whole encompassing idea and we are moving to its next phases,” he said.

Referring to agriculture, he said this industry needed to be established on modern lines. He said Pakistan enjoyed a 700 km long coastline and its fishery industry could be improved to increase its share of seafood in the world.

The prime minister said Pakistan was looking forward to enhance relations with all the friendly countries.

He said Saudi Arabia pledged to help us to stabilise our economy. He said financial help from friendly countries was much better than taking loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral financial institutions due to their stringent conditions.

Imran said a tough program had been put in place to improve governance and efforts were also underway to encourage investment-friendly environment in the country.

He said Chinese development model was unique because unlike the Western development models, that are driven by market, the Chinese one was pushed by the government.