- Karachi SEZ offers one-wind operation.
- Prime Minister sees $10 billion increase in agricultural trade.
- 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 the local firms and benefit from the country’s investor-friendly policies, describing the initiative as a “win-win model” for both nations.
Addressing the Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference on IT and Telecom, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Agriculture in Hangzhou, China, the Prime Minister said that labor in China today had become quite expensive and China was obviously moving towards a very high level of industrialization.
He noted that the industry where China was no longer competitive due to expensive labor could come to Pakistan, bring in plant 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 this will be something of a roaring success in times to come, whether it is textile or leather or other fields,” the Prime Minister maintained in his speech broadcast on national television channels.
He also invited Chinese businessmen to come and see the export zone in Karachi where they would have good opportunities to understand business proposals.
Referring to the potential of mines and minerals, he said that it was also a very important area where Pakistan had large deposits of minerals and precious stones.
On the agriculture sector, he said that Pakistan was basically an agricultural economy. Last year they sent 1,000 boys and girls to China for further education who came back and are doing good work, but this was only the first step.
The Prime Minister emphasized that they really needed to move forward and have opportunities to improve their yield per share. acre, having highest quality seeds, best farming practices and mechanization through which they could really advance their agriculture sector by many folds.
He said China imports 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 according to their requirements in terms of quality and other controls and if they worked together as iron brothers in this sector, they would not only be able to provide massive job opportunities in rural Pakistan but also be able to raise hundreds of thousands of small, medium entrepreneurs in rural areas and have value addition and export these goods to China.
In the next five to seven years, he said they expected an increase in their trade in agricultural products to China by about $10 billion, which was not a big task.
The Prime Minister said that IT and AI had immense potential while Special Economic Zones were also very important and shared that in the port city of Karachi they had come up with a Special Economic Zone spread over more than 6,000 acres of land where all basic facilities would be provided so that Chinese investors and Pakistani entrepreneurs could jointly invest there.
He said this special economic zone would have modern infrastructure, a seamless business environment and would offer a red-carpet treatment and one-stop operation to the Chinese.
“I would like to offer you all this opportunity to come forward and we will offer you land for the long term in terms of lease,” he added.
The Prime Minister further elaborated that it would be given on long-term lease at very attractive terms and conditions. This special world-class economic zone and model would be replicated elsewhere in Pakistan through the huge Chinese contribution.
He said that Pakistan was looking for expertise, experience, investment and not loans, not aid, not handouts, because handouts, aid never made a nation alive, never made a nation stand on its own 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 ever since they had launched their space program, it had reached new heights.
The prime minister said they had signed MoUs worth billions of dollars, starting from Shenzhen and here in Hangzhou, stressing that these MoUs should now be converted into agreements.
He also expressed his satisfaction to learn that 30% of these MOUs had been converted into deals which surely ran into billions of dollars.
The Prime Minister said that the Pak-China friendship dates back to the days of the Silk Road.
