News
Friday, July 09, 2010
Pakistan and China agree to enhance economic cooperation* Call for enhancing people-to-people contacts
* Zardari stresses on need to set up railway line and a pipeline from Gwadar to China to connect two countriesBEIJING: In separate meetings with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin, President Asif Ali Zardari discussed bilateral, regional and international issues with the two sides on Thursday.
They stressed unanimity of views on a host of regional and international issues and called for further stepping up economic cooperation and enhancing people-to-people contact between the two countries.
Briefing reporters, the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the talks focused on joint economic projects, promoting regional connectivity, militancy and terrorism and modalities for enhancing people-to-people contact as an essential component of the strategic relationship between the two countries.
Zardari said language was the most potent instrument for promoting people-to-people contact and called for elaborate institutional arrangements for teaching Chinese and Urdu languages to the students, workers and the people of Pakistan and China.
Railway link: Regarding connectivity, the president said the recent disruption in the Karakoram Highway due to a landslide had demonstrated the need for establishing a railway line and also a pipeline from Gwadar to China to connect the two countries. The president’s spokesman said the two sides agreed that a meeting of the Pak-China Joint Economic Forum would soon be held in Islamabad to adopt measures to take the economic cooperation between the two countries to new heights.
The forum would take up issues, including currency swap, opening of branches of Chinese banks in Pakistan and relocating industries in the special proposed industrial zones in Pakistan. The Chinese commerce minister would lead his country’s delegation during the talks.
It was also agreed that the China National Energy Administration would hold discussions with Pakistani authorities on tackling Pakistan’s energy needs.
The Chinese PM said his country appreciated Pakistan’s policy of “One China” and assured Zardari of China’s continued support to Pakistan at the UN and at multilateral forums, including SAARC and ECO. Jiabao said China deeply appreciated Pakistan’s fight against terrorism and pledged his country’s unflinching support for it. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk