HANGZHOU (APP) - Pakistani and Chinese companies signed agreements and memorandums of understanding worth more than seven billion dollars to promote cooperation and investment in various sectors.
The agreements and MoUs were signed during the Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference on IT & Telecom, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and agriculture in Hangzhou, China on Sunday.
While speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif invited the 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.
He said that labour in China today had become pretty expensive and that China was obviously moving towards a very high level of industrialisation.
He observed that the industry where China was no longer competitive because of expensive labour 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 areas,” the prime minister maintained in his speech broadcast on national TV channels.
The prime minister emphasized that they really needed to move forward to improve their per acre yield with the highest quality seeds, best agricultural practices and mechanization through which they could really advance their agriculture sector manifold.
He said China imports about 100 billion dollars worth of agricultural products from abroad. Pakistan’s share was just a fraction, adding that they needed their cooperation in this regard.
The prime minister hoped that in this manner, they would be able to produce agri products as per their requirement in terms of quality and other controls and if they worked together as iron brothers in this sector, they would be able to not only provide massive job opportunities in the rural areas of Pakistan but also be able to raise hundreds of thousands of small, medium entrepreneurs in the rural areas and have value addition and export those items to China.
The prime minister said that they had signed MoUs worth billions of dollars, starting from Shenzhen and here in Hangzhou, stressing that these MoUs now needed to be converted into agreements.