ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Islamabad on Tuesday relating to the construction of a 1200MW Chashma-5 nuclear power plant worth $3.48 billion.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif witnessed the signing of the agreement between the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and China’s National Nuclear Corporation.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was inked between Pakistan and China for a 1200 MW Chashma-5 (C-5) nuclear power project worth $3.48 billion. President of China National Nuclear Corporation Overseas Ltd (CNOS) and Member Power, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Muhammad Saeed Ur Rehman signed the MoU.
Speaking on the occasion, Shehbaz Sharif said the nuclear power project was a great step forward towards economic cooperation between the two countries.
The prime minister said the decision to start this project had been taken and the main conditions were agreed upon during the previous government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but the successive government put this project in cold storage. He said keeping in view the spiralling international inflation the project cost would have been much higher than that determined in 2017-18 but the Chinese government not only abstained from raising the cost according to the inflation but also gave a discount of around Rs30 billion.
Vowing to kickstart the project without delay, the prime minister said under the difficult economic situation, investment from China in this project to the tune of $3.48 billion sent a clear message that Pakistan
was a place where Chinese companies and investors continued to show their trust and faith. “This reflects the famous quote that our friendship is higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the deepest ocean, sweeter than sugar and honey, and stronger than iron and steel,” he said added President Xi Jinping had called this friendship as iron brothers. He said recently he also inaugurated K-3 nuclear project in Karachi. He said owing to the economic challenges, Pakistan was engaged with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in trying to finalize the 9th review.
“Pakistan has met all conditions required by the IMF that has been done three months ago, but there has been an inordinate delay”, he said adding that China once again had come to Pakistan’s rescue.
Other than China, he said Pakistan had also great friends such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar that had been and still supporting the country. However, he said at this critical juncture, Chinese support was outstanding. “We are deeply obliged to President Xi, the Chinese leadership, sincerely thanks to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his team for working hard to strike the agreement with the Chinese counterpart.” He also thanked Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Power Minister Khurram Dastgir who worked diligently in this regard. He especially thanked the new military leadership for taking an interest in this project. “This is a beautiful combination that all political
parties and military leadership are on one page,” he added. He also paid tribute to Nawaz Sharif who, for the first time in 1993 made an agreement with China for a nuclear power project. PM Shehbaz said during the last few months, China also renewed commercial and sovereign loans which reflected an unparallel friendship between the
two countries. Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir were also present on the occasion.
