THE five-day visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is necessarily aimed at boosting a multi-faceted relationship with China through expansion of cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and greater investment by Chinese companies in different sectors of Pakistan’s economy. With this in view, he had an extensive interaction with representatives of the Chinese corporate sector and addressed the Pakistan-China Friendship and Business event co-organized by Pakistan Embassy in China, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and China International Cultural Communication Centre (CICCC) in Beijing. The visit also witnessed the signing of thirty-two memorandum of understanding (MoUs) between the two countries to promote trade and investment.
The Chinese Government as well as its corporate sector has repeatedly expressed their willingness to invest more in Pakistan and in a bid to tap this vast potential, the Prime Minister, during his China visit, has tried his best to assuage apprehensions of the Chinese leaders and prospective investors about security and other unresolved issues. The federal and provincial governments and the Pakistan Army have evolved a comprehensive mechanism to improve security for Chinese nationals working on different projects in the face of attempts by some terrorist outfits to derail the cooperative relationship and create misunderstanding between the two countries. His solemn commitment “the security of Chinese nationals will be more than that of my own and my children” must have touched the hearts of his audience. Apart from assuring foolproof security, the Prime Minister briefed his interlocutors and potential investors about the steps being taken by his government to improve governance, increase the tax net and ensure ease of doing business to attract foreign direct investment. The seriousness of the country to attract investment and remove hurdles in this regard is evident from the establishment of the high powered Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which is empowered to take prompt decisions on relevant issues. In this backdrop, the PM urged the Chinese investors and businesspersons to make use of the investment opportunities in Pakistan, especially with the establishment of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) that offers a one-window solution to international investors. He called for practical and mutually beneficial cooperation in priority areas of mining, ICT and agriculture. Chinese are famous for their single-minded focus to achieve goals once these are fixed after a thorough consideration and this has been the driving force behind miraculous progress and development achieved by the country. It was, perhaps, in this backdrop that the Prime Minister reiterated his resolve before a gathering of prominent Chinese dignitaries, officials, academics, think-tank experts and businesspersons to make Pakistan a great nation by following the Chinese development model through utmost hard work and a sharp focus on industrial and agricultural progress. He also vowed to follow Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision to focus on progress and prosperity by avoiding conflicts and cited immense Chinese progress and projects like the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI). This is what the successive leaders of China have reportedly been urging to their Pakistani counterparts and we hope the planners and decision-makers in Pakistan would follow this prescription in letter and spirit to put the country on the path of accelerated progress and prosperity as has been achieved by people of China. There have been speculations that the game changer initiative of CPEC has lost its momentum because of wrong policies and approaches of the previous government in Pakistan but people of Pakistan hope for renewed focus on the project after assumption of power in the country by a party that finalized initial details of CPEC with the Chinese Government. It was, therefore, encouraging to note that Shehbaz Sharif described the CPEC as the major plank of Pakistan’s economic reforms agenda expressing the confidence that the next phase of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would serve to further deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries. The two countries have also signed multiple MoUs to enhance bilateral cooperation in agriculture, labour-intensive manufacturing industry, digital economy, green economy and logistic ecosystem and hopefully these would be transformed into agreements and practical ventures through aggressive follow up by the respective ministries and departments of Pakistan and China.
