- Karachi SEZ offers one-stop operation.
- The Prime Minister envisages an increase in agricultural trade of 10 billion dollars.
- MoUs worth billions signed in China.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday invited Chinese companies and entrepreneurs to relocate their industries and businesses to Pakistan, enter into joint ventures with local businesses and benefit from the country’s investor-friendly policies, terming the initiative a “win-win model” for both nations.
Addressing the Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference on Information Technology and Telecommunications, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Agriculture in Hangzhou, China, the Prime Minister said that labor in China today has become quite expensive and China is clearly moving towards a very high level of industrialization.
He observed that the industry in which China was no longer competitive due to expensive labor could come to Pakistan, bring facilities and machinery, enter into joint ventures with Pakistani entrepreneurs, manufacture goods and export to third countries.
“This model will be a win-win model for Chinese and Pakistani entrepreneurs, and it will be a resounding success in the times to come, whether it is textiles, leather or other fields,” the Prime Minister said in his speech broadcast on national television channels.
He also invited Chinese businessmen to come and visit Karachi Export Zone, where they would have great opportunities to understand their business propositions.
Referring to the potential of mines and minerals, he said that this is also a very important region where Pakistan has significant deposits of minerals and precious stones.
On the agricultural sector, he said Pakistan was fundamentally an agrarian economy. Last year they sent 1,000 boys and girls to China for advanced training, who came back and are doing a great job, but that was just the first step.
The Prime Minister stressed that they really need to move forward and have opportunities to improve their yield per acre, have the highest quality seeds, better agricultural practices and mechanization through which they could actually advance their agricultural sector by several folds.
He said China imported about $100 billion worth of agricultural products from abroad. Pakistan’s share was only a fraction, adding that they needed their cooperation in this regard.
The Prime Minister hoped that in this way, they would be able to produce agricultural products as per their requirements in terms of quality and other controls and if they worked together like iron brothers in this sector, they would be able to not only provide huge employment opportunities in rural areas of Pakistan but also uplift hundreds of thousands of small and medium entrepreneurs in rural areas and have value addition and export these products to China.
Over the next five to seven years, he said they expect their agricultural trade with China to increase by about $10 billion, which is not a big task.
The Prime Minister said that IT and AI had huge potential, while special economic zones were also very important and shared that in the port city of Karachi, they had created a special economic zone spread over 6,000 acres of land, where all basic amenities would be provided so that Chinese investors and Pakistani entrepreneurs could invest there together.
He said the special economic zone would have modern infrastructure, a smooth business environment and provide a red carpet and one-stop operation for Chinese people.
“I would like to offer this opportunity to all of you to come forward, and we are going to offer you land on a long-term basis in terms of rental,” he added.
The Prime Minister further clarified that it would be leased on a long-term basis under very attractive conditions. This world-class special economic zone and its model would be replicated elsewhere in Pakistan thanks to the huge Chinese contribution.
He said Pakistan was looking for expertise, experience, investment and not loans, not aid, not gifts, because gifts, aid never made a nation vibrant, never made a nation stand on its feet.
Prime Minister Shehbaz further said that under the very dynamic leadership of President Xi Jinping, their friendship was deeper than the deepest ocean and higher than the Himalayas, but since they launched their space program, it had reached new heights.
The Prime Minister said they have signed MoUs worth billions of dollars, from Shenzhen and here in Hangzhou, emphasizing that these MoUs now need to be converted into agreements.
He was also pleased to learn that 30% of these MoUs have been converted into agreements, which are almost certainly worth billions of dollars.
The Prime Minister said the friendship between Pakistan and China dates back to the Silk Road era.
