Chinese academic speaks highly of PM Khan’s China visit

BEIJING, Feb 6 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan’s four-day visit to China is very successful and fruitful during which he held wide-ranging talks with Chinese leadership on bilateral relations and matters of regional and global concerns.

This was stated by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor of Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Senior Fellow of the Charhar Institute in an article published here on Sunday.

He opined that the visit is a complete success and full of fruits, which is mainly reflected in the five aspects; first, during the visit, PM Imran Khan held wide-ranging talks with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the two sides reached a high degree of consensus on the bilateral relations and important issues of regional and global concern.

On the regional security situation, the issues of Kashmir and Afghanistan were highlighted and underscored and both sides fully agreed to make joint efforts for the shared objectives of peace, stability and development in the region, he said.

Second, with the deepening of comprehensive pragmatic cooperation between the two countries, leaders of both countries reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral ties including the bilateral economic and trade relations, and were committed to high quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through its mutually reinforcing industrial, trade, health, digital and green corridors.

Prof Cheng said that both sides agreed to work closely on further deepening bilateral economic engagement and reaffirmed their commitment to further advancing the multifaceted strategic cooperative ties and building the Sino-Pak community of shared future in the new era.

Third, during the visit, China and Pakistan signed a series of important cooperation documents, especially the Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation between the Board of Investment (BOI) of Pakistan and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China will facilitate the relocation of China’s industrial units to CPEC Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and accelerate China’s investment and industrial and technological scale transfer to Pakistan so that large-scale production and export of modern industrial products can be quickly formed in Pakistan.

Fourth, Prime Minister Imran Khan and his delegation had extensive interactions with the executives of Chinese state-owned and private corporate sectors, offering a conducive environment for investment in SEZs, having greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises to invest in Pakistan.

He said that many Chinese companies immediately expressed that they were keen to expand investment in Pakistan in projects related to energy, textile, fiber-optics networks, housing, dairy, water management and recycling of metals and paper, etc. while some other enterprises expressed their desire to establish a $3.5 billion reprocessing park in Gwadar and a $350 million textile cluster near Lahore.

The Chinese textile firm, reputed for high export-quality apparel, planned to build a textile cluster on over 100 acres of land near Lahore, which would create around 20,000 jobs.

The representatives of three major agricultural firms wanted to jointly establish a modernization research lab and a demonstration plot to improve yield and seed quality in Pakistan. The Chinese fertilizer companies desired to invest in the export-oriented growth of corn and soybeans, he added.

Elaborating fifth point, he said, PM Imran Khan has visited China many times and is an old friend very familiar to the Chinese people, which is closely related to his emphasis on interaction with academia and the media.

The academic and media circles of both countries play a crucial role in promoting the development of friendly relations between the two countries, enhancing people-to-people understanding and perception, and consolidating the people-to-people foundation of bilateral relations.

This time, PM Imran Khan was interviewed by China Global Television Network (CGTN) and interacted with the media, leaving a deep impression on the Chinese people that he is a firm, resolute, friendly, and people-oriented great leader.

“I firmly believe that broad consensus reached during the visit and fruitful results of this important visit will inject new impetus to Sino-Pak ironclad friendship and chart the course for the further development of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership,” he added.