Chinese Vice FM arrives in Islamabad for key CPEC meeting

ISLAMABAD: Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong arrived in Pakistan today to participate in the fourth meeting of the CPEC-Joint Working Group on International Cooperation and Coordination scheduled to be held in Islamabad tomorrow.

Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi will co-chair the meeting with the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister. Additionally, Sun Weidong is expected to meet with the senior leadership of the country.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan’s export of goods and services to China witnessed an increase of 39.44 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal year (2023-24) as compared to the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

The overall exports to China were recorded at US $1223.532 million during July-November (2023-24) against exports of US $877.444 million during July-November (2022-23), SBP data revealed. On a year-to-year basis, the exports to China also surged by 36.29 per cent from $199.058 million in November 2022, against the exports of $271.316 million in November 2023.

Meanwhile, on a month-on-month basis, the exports to China decreased by 14.90 per cent during November 2023 as compared to the exports of $318.842 million in October 2023, the SBP data revealed. Overall Pakistan’s exports to other countries witnessed an increase of 4.99 per cent in the first five months, from US $11.915 billion to US $12.510 billion, the SBP data revealed.