BEIJING: Pakistan Ambassador to China, Masood Khalid said that since launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework, cooperation between the two all-weather friends had increased manifold.
“Now, the new projects in the agriculture sector will be started to enhance economic development in Pakistan,” he told APP ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official visit to China starting from November 2.
He said that Pakistan had not taken benefit from agriculture which was vital for its economy and added, “Efforts are being made to introduce drip irrigation, mechanized farming and hybrid seeds for up gradation of the agriculture sector.
In the education sector, around 25,000 Pakistani students were studying Chinese language and other subjects in universities of China.
“They are the true ambassador of Pakistan and will play a key role in further cementing Pak-China relations in future,” he added.
The Ambassador remarked that Pakistan and China had a long history of relations and the graph of their relationship was going up.
“Now both the countries have multi-faceted cooperation in trade economy, finance, defence, security, science and technology, and agriculture.”
Pakistan, he said, attached high hopes from the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding, “We are passing through a difficult phase.”
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He said that Pakistan needed to strengthen its economy and defence in view of current economic challenges and the regional situation because of Afghanistan and Indian policy, adding, “For this purpose, we have also the cooperation of China.”
On the progress of CPEC, he informed that under this flagship project, 22 projects were in different phases and few were in pipeline.
Masood Khalid said that up to US$ 19 billion of investment was committed by China and added, ”When other projects will start, this investment will increase.”
He said the projects under the CPEC had so far created 60,000 new jobs for people in Pakistan.
APP
