Pakistan, China to march toward shared development: PM Shehbaz

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said Pakistan and China will march toward shared development and prosperity with joint investments in diverse projects.

In an interview with a Chinese news agency, PM Shehbaz said the friendship between Pakistan and China spanned more than 70 years and has been nurtured by both countries’ leadership to promote friendly relations.

He added that the two countries have developed as all-weather, “Iron Brothers” and have unique associations of friendship that have stood the test of time. “This friendship now must achieve higher heights,” he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had congratulated Sharif on his election as prime minister of Pakistan on March 3. In his response, Sharif deeply appreciated Xi’s warm message of facilitation and continued support for Pakistan.

“I deeply value his sentiments not only for the people of Pakistan, for our friendship, but our mutual cooperation,” he said. “For me, it’s a very good start.” Highlighting Chinese modernization, a key term defining China’s journey to rejuvenation, Sharif, who has served three terms as chief minister of Punjab province, stressed that Pakistan should emulate the model.

“It is a great success model and success story,” the prime minister said, adding that generations of visionary Chinese leaders have led their people to create unprecedented development miracles, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and providing vast rural populations with access to education, health, medical facilities, and employment.

The Chinese modernization model created growth centers and sectors that produce competing products by procuring modern knowledge in science and technology, he said.

“Despite challenges in recent years, China’s growth has still gone steadily compared to other countries, which is a remarkable achievement,” he added.

Pakistan should replicate this model in the country to alleviate poverty, provide jobs to the youth, and encourage small and medium entrepreneurs to kickstart businesses in villages, towns and cities in sectors of agriculture, industry, information technology and on other platforms, the prime minister said.

Citing Pakistan as one of the first batch of countries joining the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), PM Sharif said that Pakistan fully and firmly supports China-proposed GDI and Global Security Initiative and believes the initiatives will further create strong connections between global communities.

PM Shehbaz commended the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a very visionary initiative, which spans continents and alleviates poverty and hunger in the countries, promotes investments, and boosts education and health. “There couldn’t have been a better model for forging global societies together.”

Pakistan is now ready to move toward the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of BRI, he said, adding that Pakistan will attract modern technology in information technology (IT), industrial, and agricultural areas as China is now moving towards high-tech, higher quality production.

The PM said CPEC is dovetailing with the Pakistan-proposed Special Investment Facilitation Council, which aims to cut red tape and remove delays and inefficiencies, adding that the country is planning to build industrial parks and export zones and looking forward to attracting Chinese entrepreneurs to establish joint ventures in the areas of textile, steel or other with the combination of Chinese technology and Pakistan’s comparatively cheap labor.

“Through those joint ventures, high-quality products in agriculture, industry, IT, etc., will be produced to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and wealth, and increase our production and exports,” the prime minister added.

Calling China Pakistan’s second home, Sharif said he looks forward to visiting it when possible as there is a tradition of new Pakistani leadership always taking great pleasure and honor in visiting China at an opportune time.