China acknowledges progress on CPEC, terms it pivot of BRI

BEIJING    –  China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and the bilateral relations between the two countries have become even stronger in economic and trade development, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Hua Chunying said on Friday.

“China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners. The bilateral relations have become even stronger in economic and trade development,” she said in response to a question. In particular, CPEC, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as an important pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation and a flagship for bilateral cooperation, has registered new progress in its building and generated more and more social benefits, she added.

Hua Chunying said that the Chinese side stood ready to work together with Pakistan to advance cooperation in Belt and Road initiative, facilitate the high-quality building of CPEC, enhance policy communication, connectivity, trade, investment, and people-to-people exchanges for both sides in all sectors, so as to jointly achieve greater development and bring more benefits to the two peoples.

According to statistics, the exports from Pakistan to China have increased by 30 percent month on month in November 2020, improving trade balance between the two countries.

Under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Phase-II signed between the two countries, China has expanding more market access to Pakistani products.

China has also organized a number of trade promotion activities for Pakistani products. Recently, Pakistan was invited to participate as a special cooperation partner country in China-ASEAN Expo held in Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region of China wherein Pakistan Pavilion was set up to promote Pakistani goods.

Earlier, Pakistan also attended the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai last month.