PM Kakar to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping today

Premier meets Chinese business reps, informs them of Pakistan's 'pro-investment policies'

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar will be meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today (on Thursday) to discuss bilateral relations.

The caretaker prime minister arrived in Beijing earlier this week to participate in the Third Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation.

The premier will later today meet with the Chinese Communist Party's minister for International Department, and later in the day leave for his visit to Urumqi.

'Pakistan's pro-investment policies'

Earlier in the day, the caretaker prime minister met Chairman Minmentals Weng Zuliang and Chairman China Metallurgical Group Corporation Chen Jianuang in Beijing.

During the meeting, the premier informed that Pakistan was offering Chinese companies and the world an opportunity for investment in the mining and metallurgy sectors with high productivity yields.

PM Kakar apprised the delegation about the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) set up for the promotion of foreign investment in the country.

Read Kakar to meet Putin, others on sidelines of BRF in Beijing

The heads of the Chinese companies expressed keen interest to invest in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Kakar meets a delegation of Chinese businessmen during his visit to China for the Third Belt and Road Forum. PHOTO: APP

'Completed projects worth $25b under CPEC'

Addressing the forum a day earlier, the premier said that Pakistan had completed more than 50 projects worth $25 billion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The CPEC is a flagship project under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with more than $65 billion pledged for road, rail, and other infrastructure development projects in Pakistan.

"We have completed over 50 projects worth $25 billion under the CPEC," Kakar said, adding that a very significant airport at the southwestern Gwadar port, which was being built with Chinese money as part of the CPEC, would soon be inaugurated.

Clean energy projects were expected to be completed in the next four to five years under the CPEC, Kakar said.

Separately, Prime Minister Kakar and Chinese Premier Li Qiang met on the sidelines of the third BRF and discussed the bilateral ties.

They agreed to further strengthen high-level dialogue and engagement besides deepening the political, economic, education, science and technology, cultural and people-to-people relations.

Accompanied by ministers and senior officials, the two leaders reaffirmed the time-tested and iron-clad friendship between Pakistan and China.