Pakistan, China sign 22 economic agreements

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and China Saturday signed 22 new trade agreements, worth $15-billion, aimed at deepening strategic and economic toes between the two countries, officials said.

These come on the top of another 13 agreements worth around $20 billion signed Friday after bilateral meetings.

The fresh deals were inked at a business summit addressed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Pakistani host Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended by business representatives from the two nations.

Gilani said that the corporate and business sectors of both countries must now seize business opportunities offered by Pakistan and take the lead.

Wen urged the investors from his country to invest in Pakistan and help build the economic ties with the traditional Chinese friend.

“We have strong political relations and now we are building economic ties, which can witnessed from the fact that trade has risen from $1 billion in 2000 to $7 billion by 2009,” he said.

The state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) said the agreements will bring $25-billion investment and double the bilateral trade to bring to $15 billion till 2015.

Wen is visiting Pakistan to transform the historically defence-oriented relations into broader trade, economic and cultural ties.

Early Saturday, he joined his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to inaugurate the Pak-China Friendship Center, which Wen described “as symbol of traditional friendship”.

China announced it would send medical experts to provide free treatment to 1,000 cataract patents over the next two years. China will also provide 500 scholarships to students over the next three years.

A Pakistani, Manzoor Hussain, recounted how he guarded a cemetery of 500 Chinese engineers and workers in Pakistan’s northern areas, where they died while building the Karakoram Highway, which connects the two nations through the Himalayan region.

The two leaders also attended a briefing on Pakistan’s floods, that inundated around one-fifth of the country and affected more than two million people.

Wen is due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari at dinner. The leaders of all political parties, including former premier and main opposition figure Nawaz Sharif, have set aside bitter political differences to join the dinner.

China has been perceived as an all-weather friend and mainstay of Pakistan, against its traditional rival India.

But China is delicately trying to balance its ties with both Pakistan and India, as Wen arrived here after visiting India with a trade delegation of over 400 and agreeing to target bilateral trade of $100 billion by 2015.

Pakistan and China also privately discussed a deal for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Pakistan’s central province of Punjab. However, it was not clear yet if the two countries signed an agreement.

China has already helped Pakistan to build two nuclear power plants, one of which is in operation while the second is near completion.

The nuclear cooperation has increased despite reservations in the US, which regards Pakistan’s nuclear programme as a proliferation risk. The Chinese premier will also address the parliament Sunday before concluding the visit.