Pakistan seeks to woo investors during PM’s upcoming China visit on June 4-8

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked Pakistani officials to carve out a “comprehensive plan” for business-to-business (B2B) engagements during his visit to China on June 4-8, Sharif's office and the Pakistani foreign ministry said on Friday, as the South Asian country seeks to woo Chinese investors.
Sharif gave the directives during a meeting he presided over early Friday with regard to preparations for his visit to China, according to the Pakistan PM’s office.
It comes at a time when Pakistan is looking to boost foreign investment to support its fragile economy after averting a default last year, thanks to a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
During the meeting, officials briefed the prime minister that a delegation of Pakistani industrialists and traders would accompany him to China to promote B2B relations with Beijing.
“The prime minister gave instructions to devise a comprehensive plan regarding productive business-to-business meetings between the two countries during the visit,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
“A plan should be made to encourage Chinese industries to set up plants in Pakistan,” he was quoted as saying.
Sharif said his government would provide all-possible assistance to Chinese industrialists and investors, and instructed Pakistan’s ambassador to China to facilitate the Pakistani business delegation during his visit.
Chinese investment and financial support since 2013 have been key for the South Asian nation’s struggling economy, including the rolling over of loans so that Islamabad is able to meet external financing needs at a time its foreign reserves are critically low.
Sharif’s visit will seek to upgrade cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a major segment of the Belt and Road Initiative designed to give China a shorter, more secure trading route to the Middle East and beyond, while also boosting Pakistan’s economy. Beijing is investing over $65 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan as part of CPEC.
“An important aspect of the prime minister’s visit will be meetings with corporate executives of leading Chinese companies dealing with oil and gas, energy, ICT [information and communications technology] and emerging technologies,” foreign ministry spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly press briefing in Islamabad on Friday.
Sharif will meet President Xi and hold delegation level talks with Premier Li Qiang, Baloch added.
Since its initiation in 2013, CPEC has seen tens of billions of dollars funnelled into massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects. But the undertaking has also been hit by Pakistan struggling to keep up its financial obligations as well as attacks on Chinese targets by militants.
Officials in Beijing and Islamabad this month held a virtual meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on CPEC.
The meeting, which focused on joint energy and infrastructure development initiatives, was convened after a March 26 suicide attack that killed five Chinese engineers and their local driver en route to the under-construction Dasu dam in northwest Pakistan.
Briefing the media about the decisions made during the meeting, Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Chinese security concerns were discussed during the talks.
“Security issues were discussed in the meeting and China was briefed on improving security,” he said, adding that Pakistani authorities had raised a special force to ensure the safety of CPEC projects.
He also informed the two countries agreed to start the mega ML-1 railway project focusing on the dualization of the existing railway network, built in the late 19th century, and the overall upgrading of tracks connecting the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Peshawar.

Pakistan seeks to woo investors during PM’s upcoming China visit on June 4-8