PM Shehbaz promises to provide blanket security to Chinese nationals & companies working in Pakistan

SHENZHEN, June 5 (SABAH): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday described China as a role model and said the world should follow the Chinese example, under which the Asian giant binned the redundant practices and implemented policies to modernise its economy and society.

“I am here for trade and development, not loans,” the prime minister said and invited the Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan which has mineral resources worth around $10 trillion.

There is a need to learn from China, Shehbaz said and asked the Pakistani companies to replicate the Chinese model, as he addressed the Pakistan-China Business Forum in Shenzhen, while also recalling that Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators were better than that of China back in 1950s and 1960s.

He said President Xi Jinping like his predecessors invested on the younger generation and focused on human resource development while propelling 700 million Chinese out of poverty, which enabled the country to become the world’s second largest economy and global military power. The prime minister described the Shangla suicide bombing as one of the saddest day of his life and promised to provide blanket security to the Chinese nationals and companies working in Pakistan.

He offered his sincere apologies and condolences to the Shangla attack victims’ families and the Chinese people, while mentioning that China had invested billions of dollars across Pakistan. Shehbaz said the Belt and Road Imitative (BRI) provided a guaranteed roadmap to development and added that Pakistan had taken great advantage of the multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

About creating an environment conducive to investors, the prime minister said work had been started on structural reforms in Pakistan and the government was working on eliminating corruption from the country.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in his speech said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) was taking steps to encourage investors and businesses, adding that Pakistan ample investment opportunities in a wide range of fields. Pakistan is mulling over privatisation of 84 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), said Dar, who also holds the foreign ministry portfolio.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told the gathering that Pakistan had been witnessing continuous improvement in macroeconomic indicators, including a drastic decline in inflation, adding that the issue of interest rate cuts would have to be looked into during the current year.

It is not the first time that the finance minister has indicated at rate cuts, as he previously said that the rate cut cycle would start in June. With the consumer price index (CPI) dropping to a 30-month low of 11.3pc in May, it is now widely believe that the Monetary Policy Committee will go a rate cut of around 300 basis points [3pc] at its next meeting scheduled for June 10.