Summary Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will attend energy conference and meet political leadership in Shanghai.
BEIJING (Dunya News) - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has arrived in Shanghai from Beijing by a bullet train today (Saturday).
The prime minister, who chose China for his first foreign tour after assuming office, is accompanied by a high-level delegation including the chief ministers of Punjab and Balochistan provinces besides the minister for water and power and others.
As per details, the Prime Minister would meet Chinese traders and investors during the journey. During his visit to Shanghai, he would also attend energy conference and hold meetings with the political leadership.
Nawaz Sharif began 5-day official visit to China in hopes of securing infrastructure projects to help tackle Pakistan s economic and energy problems.
PM Nawaz meet President Xi Jinping , and Premier Li Keqiang , before heading to Shanghai. He will also met financial and corporate leaders, and visited major industrial centres during his trip.
The visit is the second high-level meeting between the two nations since May, when Chinese premier Li Keqiang visited Pakistan.
Trade between China and Pakistan last year reached US$12 billion - a fraction of China and India s US$67 billion bilateral trade.
Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday that one of his priorities for discussions with the Chinese leadership was the China-Pakistan economic corridor. A Chinese firm has the rights to operate the corridor, which links Kashgar in Xinjiang and the Indian Ocean port of Gwadar in Pakistan.
The corridor, which included a rail line and special economic zones, was expected to boost bilateral trade and reduce the journey time for goods being taken from eastern parts of China to central Asia, Sharif said.
Economic cooperation between Pakistan and China has expanded significantly in recent years.The two countries have bilateral economic cooperation in the form of the Joint Economic Commission, Economic Cooperation Group, Joint Energy Working Group and a Joint Investment Company, besides several other mechanisms.
A Free Trade Agreement is operational since 2008, covering trade in goods, investment and services.The trade volume between the two countries last year crossed the figure of US$12 billion with Pakistan exports increasing by 48%.
More than 120 Chinese companies are engaged in Pakistan and Chinese investment touched the figure of US$ 2 billion in 2012.A difficult task for Mr Sharif will be to convince people that this trip and the MOUs the countries signed will not be wasted as happened in the last ten years; out of the 400 MOUs signed, only 40, or ten percent of them, have materialized.
