ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that relations between Pakistan and China had stood the test of time and the two countries were now looking forward to deepening that relationship under the Belt and Road Initiative of China, Gulf Today reported.
Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the initiative comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network
connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes. “The two countries have maintained a close friendship, based on mutual respect, peace and harmony and their relationship is not against any third country,” Aziz told China Daily on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province.
The forum is a non-profit organisation that hosts high-level conferences for leaders from government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to share their vision on the most pressing issues in the region and the world at large. It is modeled after the World Economic Forum.
Aziz said the two countries had already cooperated closely on multiple infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative and would do so on more projects in future. The Belt and Road Initiative had strengthened the links between China and Pakistan in areas of telecommunication, transport and digitalization, he added.
He lauded services of the Chinese president, a great leader who was doing what it took to move China forward.
Meanwhile, government and business leaders attending the annual conference agreed that the Belt and Road Initiative was doing a key job in restructuring the global production value chain amid profound changes in the world. “Traditional international investment and trade structure is undergoing a readjustment,” they said. Dwindling investment from the developed world and the rich countries’ focus on rebooting their own manufacturing industry would result in sluggish trade and production
around the world, but a new type of globalisation would be driven more by the East than the West, they observed. Speaking at the forum, Chairman of China’s Minsheng Investment Group,
Dong Wenbiao, said more than 30 years of opening up and rapid development had lifted China into the status of the world’s second largest economy. “It is transforming from a manufacturing powerhouse to a country stressing more on high-tech-led progress,” Dong said. “We hope to share our experience with the rest of the world, and the Belt and Road Initiative is a pilot project of such endeavours.”
He said that Chinese investors attached great importance to training of local people, especially in less developed regions, in realization of the initiative. The trainees included not only senior managers, but also technicians and other workers, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, China’s Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiochuan said the country had decided to substantially cut the number of sectors closed to foreign investment. He said Beijing was in talks with Japan, European and Asean countries on bilateral trade and investment agreements.
Meanwhile, China has reiterated to give priority to Pak-China relations and work together to further enhance and cement existing bonds. Speaking at a function in Beijing, Chinese Transport Minister LiXiaopeng said the exemplary and longstanding friendship cooperation for economic development between China and Pakistan was a model for other nations.
Li Xiaopeng said an early harvest was expected for projects involving transportation, infrastructure and energy in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
