IN a momentous development, Pakistan and China signed nine agreements worth $440 million to boost cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held out an assurance to provide all-encompassing security to the Chinese work force in Pakistan. The accords signed during Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Conference on Pharmaceutical, Healthcare and Biotechnology Sector in Islamabad envisage closer cooperation in local vaccine production, biotechnology, drug manufacturing, technology exchange and prevention of hepatitis.
Pakistan’s pharmaceutical sector is a Rs. 1 trillion industry that meets over 90% of domestic medicine demand. Despite robust domestic volume, the industry navigates several critical structural and economic dynamics including over-dependence on import of raw material and lack of quality control. Focus on local production/manufacturing and compliance to global quality controls will not only mean availability of quality medicines at affordable prices to the people of Pakistan but also generate surplus for exports. We have been pointing out in these columns time and again that China is more than willing to invest in different sectors of Pakistan’s economy (it has already invested $30 billion in the first phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). There are some issues that hinder realization of the goal of greater investment flows from China including security of the manpower as Chinese engineers and technicians working on several important projects came under attack by foreign-linked terrorist outfits and anti-state elements. However, there is a commitment at the highest level to boost security for all foreigners, especially Chinese and the additional measures introduced by the Government has led to improvement in the overall security cover for foreigners. We hope that increased focus on security will encourage faster implementation of the agreements concluded to forge ties in the pharmaceutical sector, which will go a long way in accelerating the pace of its growth.
