China hopes to promote ‘all-round cooperation’ with Pakistan

NUST holds photo exhibition depicting China’s progress over time

China has expressed a desire to promote closer linkages to promote cooperation with Pakistan as part of its mission objectives under its grand One Belt and One Road Initiative.

This was stated by Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing during an event to mark the Chinese New Year at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) on Monday.

The Chinese Studies Centre (CSC) at NUST School of Social Sciences and Humanities (S3H) in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad had organised a photographic exhibition of China at the varsity. The photos depicted China’s progress over the past four decades of reforms and the open door policy to the outside world.

Ambassador Jing appreciated NUST for organising the event and a get-together of alumni from Chinese higher education institutions.

He recalled his long association with NUST and expressed his desire to promote closer linkages to promote the mission objectives of the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, of which the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a flagship project.

He reiterated the readiness of the Chinese government to promote all-round cooperation with Pakistan, particularly in sharing its experiences in setting up prosperous special economic zones, industrialisation, agriculture uplift and social sector to include poverty alleviation, health, higher education and vocational/training sectors in addition to ongoing cooperation to modernise Pakistan’s infrastructure and develop energy resources.

NUST Rector Lt Gen (retired) Naweed Zaman welcomed the Chinese Ambassador and other guests to the ceremony and spoke highly of the friendship between Pakistan and China, which he said was a time-tested one.

Mentioning the longstanding, bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the higher education sector, Lt Gen Zaman said that over the past few years, NUST had worked on plans and initiatives in partnership with Chinese higher education institutions to harness opportunities from the OBOR initiative and CPEC.

He maintained that NUST also had the privilege of holding the first Beijing Forum outside of China in May 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2019.