PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif is to undertake a five day visit to China from June 04 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Li Qiang for wide-ranging talks aimed at upgradation and expansion of ties in various fields. He will also meet corporate executives of leading Chinese companies in the fuel, energy and IT sectors besides addressing Pakistan-China Business Forum at Shenzhen. According to Foreign Office spokesperson, the two sides will undertake discussions to further strengthen the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership; upgrade the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, advance trade and investment; enhance cooperation in security and defence, energy, space, science and technology and education; and promote cultural cooperation and people-to-people contacts, thus setting the future trajectory for Pakistan-China friendship.
The visit assumes special significance as it takes place at a time when the Federal Government is about to present the budget for the next financial year and the date of its presentation has been delayed because of the visit, which means it has close linkages with the budgetary plans of the country. China has been a reliable source for external inflows and there are also expectations from people of Pakistan that the friendly country would continue to help accelerate the pace of socio-economic progress through CPEC. It is encouraging that the Government is according due priority and attention to preparations for the visit to make it tangible and result oriented. The Prime Minister convened a preparatory meeting where he issued a number of directives to different ministries and departments to create strategies aimed at attracting Chinese industries to establish their operations in Pakistan, assuring them of the government’s complete support and facilitation. He also urged Pakistan’s ambassador to China to provide comprehensive assistance to the Pakistani business delegation during their visit. He gave instructions for development of thorough plans to conduct productive business-to-business meetings between the two countries. Notably, China is also according greater importance to the visit, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry asserting that Beijing looks forward to the visit of PM Shehbaz, seeing it as an ‘opportunity to promote greater joint development’. It may also be mentioned that ahead of the visit the Government approved the construction of 241-kilometer long Thakot-Raikot section of Karakorum Highway under the CPEC at a cost of $2 billion. This project, no doubt, has special importance because of its potential to give a boost to economic and commercial relations between the two countries but more important is the need to launch and implement the much-talked-about second phase of the CPEC which has the prospects to help overcome Pakistan’s economic woes.
