BEIJING, Jun 4 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday kicked off his five-day visit to China to further enhance ties with the neighbouring country, push forward the development and upgrade of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and expand cooperation in emerging sectors such as new technologies, Chinese experts said.
The prime minister’s first visit to China after starting his second term in March, would elevate mutual trust and push for new cooperation between the two countries to inject strong momentum into CPEC, the experts said.
“We are coming with serious plans to make our friendship become much higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the deepest ocean of the world,” PM Shehbaz said in an interview with Chinese media in Islamabad ahead of his China trip.
“Through the visit, Pakistan hopes to promote interaction between enterprises in both countries, utilize special economic zones and Pakistan’s labour advantages to establish joint ventures, facilitate the transfer of industries and technologies, and enhance Pakistan’s manufacturing output to promote constructing an upgraded CPEC,” he added.
The prime minister’s official visit to China would last from Tuesday to Saturday, according to an earlier announcement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“Enhancing the ironclad relationship between China and Pakistan is on top of Shehbaz Sharif’s agenda as this marks his first trip to China since starting his second term as prime minister in March,” Qian Feng, Director of the Research Department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
To push forward the development of the CPEC, and expand bilateral cooperation to new areas such as emerging technologies, e-commerce and ecological agriculture would be the focus of the visit, Qian said.
PM Shehbaz’s visit to China with a federal cabinet and a huge business delegation had gained the attention of international community as it was proving to be another milestone for elevating the bilateral relationship to a new height, Muhammad Zamir Assadi, a Pakistani political analyst and a research fellow of the Beijing-based China International Press Communication Center, told the Global Times.
Based on the remarkable achievements of the CPEC in phase one, this visit would lay a solid foundation for both sides to enter into the second phase of the project that is expected to yield the unaccountable economic benefits for Pakistan, Assadi said.
Experts said that counter-terrorism and safeguarding the security of CPEC were also the main focus of PM Shehbaz’s current visit.
The prime minister’s visit would serve to enhance mutual trust between the two countries to tackle the challenges like security, Zhu Yongbiao, Executive Director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times.
“This visit will also help China and Pakistan to expand new cooperation models under the new security concept, and provide strong support for CPEC,” Zhu added.
APP/asg