PM's China visit: Bright hopes to end Pakistan's energy crisis
Source : Business Recorder Date : July 15, 2013
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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif culminated his five-day visit to China wherefrom he brought along numerous hopes for recuperation of Pakistan's energy ills and uplift of under-developed infrastructure.
The focus of the Prime Minister's visit was to lure Chinese investors and persuade Chinese government to lend a helping hand for Pakistan's deliverance from pestering issues of power crisis and bring an impetus to national economy through developing modernistic communications network.
The Prime Minister honored his words of making his tour a "working visit" and opted to personally visit development projects for first hand knowledge.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited China on the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang who had visited Pakistan in May last. The selection of China by the Prime Minister for his first foreign visit also substantiates the deep ties between both the countries.
After landing at Beijing International Airport on July 3 along with his entourage, the Prime Minister was accorded red carpet treatment that followed plenty of his meetings with the Chinese Premier, President Xi Jinping, heads of financial institutions and energy sector and engineering companies.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met Chairman China's Export-Import Bank Li Ruogu, Chairman China Development Bank Hu Huaibang and President and Vice-Chairman China Investment Corporation Gao Xiqing and invited them to invest in Pakistan's energy and infrastructure sector.
He informed that a special fund will be created for the Pak-China Economic corridor and assured that a separate fund will also be setup for infrastructure development projects.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also met his counterpart Li Keqiang. Later, a joint statement was issued in which both the sides resolved to promote the policies aimed at advancing the cause of peace, co- operation and harmony creating a win-win situation in the region.
"Pakistan will continue to adhere to its one-China policy, oppose Taiwan and Tibet's independence and support China's efforts in combating the "Three Evils" of extremism, terrorism and separatism. We regard ETIM as our common threat and stand united in combating this menace," Pakistani Prime Minister resolved.
They agreed to focus on the following areas of cooperation in the near future under the framework of the Long-Term Plan for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: start the China-Pakistan Cross-border Fiber Optic Cable project at an appropriate time, upgrade and realign the Karakoram Highway on fast-track basis, explore cooperation on solar energy and biomass energy, explore construction of industrial parks along the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, launch at an early date inter-governmental consultations to implement the Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) in Pakistan, coordinate the commercial operation of TD-LTE in Pakistan, and enhance cooperation in the wireless broadband area.
Both sides decided to celebrate 2015 as China-Pakistan Year of Friendly Exchanges in a befitting manner.
The two sides believed that the evolving situation in Afghanistan has great implications for the regional security and stability, reaffirming support for the "Afghan-owned and Afghan- led" peace and reconciliation process.
In their meeting, both Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to carry forward their all weather friendship to new heights.
Deliberating the numerous challenges faced by Pakistan, Prime Minister reiterated his resolve to surmount all these challenges.
The Chinese President said Pakistan was a great country and hoped the visit would prove to be fruitful as a lot of homework had been done by both the countries.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took a ride on Beijing subway and got briefing about its system. He reiterated his commitment to provide low cost and comfortable transport facility to the masses.
He also travelled on Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Train whereon he met heads of engineering companies and discussed his government's plan to generate power through coal and other alternate resources.
Nawaz Sharif invited companies' heads to visit Pakistan along with the project proposals of their interest for the onward discussion on those projects.
The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also addressed Pakistan-China Energy Forum in Shanghai and said Pakistan's present government was business and investment-friendly and resolved to eliminate all the bottlenecks in the investment.
He said energy policy and energy security had been the part of his party's manifesto and assured to provide uninterrupted power supply to industries for giving a spur to the business activities.
He also mentioned a 969MW Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project, three power projects Karot, Kohala and Taunsa to add 2,000MW being executed by Chinese companies.
Nawaz Sharif said his government looked forward to Chinese investment in renewable energy sector particularly wind and solar with the country having accumulated potential of 60,000MW.
He said Pakistan was also rich of coal reservoirs of 185 billion tons having capacity to generate 100,000MW for 300 years.
During meeting with President of China Southern Power Grid (CSG) Zhao Jianguo in Guangzhou, the Prime Minister sought suggestions and assistance in curbing power line losses, theft and pilferage in Pakistan and got affirmative response from the company.
The Governor Guangdong province Zhu Xiaodan also met the Prime Minister and hosted banquet.
Nawaz Sharif had also an interaction with Secretary ruling Communist Party of China, Han Zheng and expressed pleasure that number of Chinese enterprises had expressed their keen interest in energy and infrastructure development.
Talking to media there, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he would set up a 'China Cell' in his office tasked with supervision of all the development projects to be executed with the Chinese cooperation in Pakistan.
He said that after signing of Karachi-Lahore Motorway, implementation of the projects would soon take place, benefitting the people living in all parts of the country, besides Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
On security, the Prime Minister said that a National Security Policy will be formulated with the consultation of chiefs of the security institutions and heads of parliamentary parties, experts and media persons will also be invited.
The Prime Minister also met Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhang Dejiang and discussed bilateral ties.
During the visit, Pakistan and China signed eight documents of cooperation in various areas of economy including 200 kilometers tunnels in Pak-China Economic corridor costing $18 billion.
Both sides also signed agreement on Economic and Technical cooperation, two letters of exchanges on training courses and an MoU for cooperation and exchanges between Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Ruling Communist Party of China. A document was signed between Strategic Communication organization of Pakistan and Huawei company for laying optic fiber for setting up communication link between Pakistan and China.
The Punjab Minister of Energy Choudhry Sher Ali Khan signed MoU on Local home solar solution project. The Chief of the ZTE signed the documents on Chinese side.
In one instance, Prime Minister also talked of giving special status to Gwadar Port through necessary legislation to ensure speedy execution of the project.
On completion of his five-day visit, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was seen off by Deputy Provincial Governor, Assistant Foreign Minister and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan.