ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Tuesday that a high-level delegation of Chinese officials will visit Pakistan “soon” to enhance bilateral cooperation, describing his recent trip to China as a “successful” one.
The Pakistani premier concluded his five-day visit to China on Saturday, which included several high-profile meetings with top political and business leaders.
His engagements across various Chinese cities aimed at upgrading the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), through which Beijing has pledged over $60 billion to the South Asian country.
Sharif chaired a meeting of Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Tuesday to take them into confidence about his visit to China, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“We had positive discussions about the second phase of the CPEC project,” the PMO quoted Sharif as saying. “To enhance Pak-China cooperation further, a high-level delegation of Chinese officials will visit Pakistan soon.”
He told cabinet members over 1,000 business-to-business meetings were held between Pakistani and Chinese businessmen and investors at the Pakistan-China Business Forum in Shenzhen.
Sharif said Pakistan will send 1,000 youngsters to China for professional training in the agriculture sector to witness and take advantage of Chinese innovation and development in the agricultural sector.
He said renowned Chinese company Huawei will provide technical and professional training to 2,000 Pakistani youths every year in various fields of information technology.
Sharif’s China visit was particularly timely since Pakistan has been trying to navigate a prolonged economic crisis by actively pursuing foreign investments and enhanced trade opportunities, while also seeking yet another International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to keep economic reforms on track.
The South Asian country has seen a flurry of diplomatic and other high-level engagements from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan and Uzbekistan as Islamabad attempts to attract foreign investment in its key economic sectors.
