Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed his hopes for strengthened collaboration with China under the upgraded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), aiming to enhance mountain infrastructure, drive agricultural development and cultivate innovative industrial partnerships.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Zardari paid a state visit to China from Feb 4 to 8.
During their talks, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized China's commitment to deepening practical cooperation with Pakistan in various sectors and working together to upgrade the CPEC project.
Launched in 2013, the CPEC, a flagship project of BRI, is a corridor linking Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan's Balochistan province with Kashgar in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport, and industrial cooperation in the first phase, while the new phase expands to the fields of agriculture and livelihood.
In an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG), President Asif Ali Zardari spoke about his government's efforts to promote economic development and how China can be a key partner in this endeavor.
"The path that leads to us is a mountainous region. So, they have issues with that mountainous region. That needs to be solidified, so that can withstand future issues like floods, like other depressions. Agriculture is somewhere where China can help us and per capita, per acre yield is much less than yours. I've just had a meeting with a company which is talking about the export of milk," he said.
On industrial cooperation, he highlighted the convenience of remote work, proposing a model where Chinese managers remotely oversee production in Pakistan from China, while local workers handle the tasks on the ground.
"The industry concept is simple. We have got industrial parks only for China and those industrial parks are going to be worked upon by the Pakistani labor, because now the concept is of working from home. The chairman of the company can be sitting anywhere in China and he will still be running his company in Pakistan. So, this is something that we discussed with the Chinese government," he said.
Pakistani President looks to unlock country's economic potential via CPEC cooperation
