From Our Correspondent
BEIJING: Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque has invited Chinese businessmen to take advantage of the dividend of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) set up under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan.
“Under CPEC, we have identified nine special economic zones across Pakistan and three of them are now in advanced stage of preparation. So through this, I take this opportunity to invite my Chinese friends and businessmen to come and take advantage of these special economic zones in Pakistan.
We are going to share all the details very soon,” he said in an interview with Economic Daily-China Economic Net (CEN) published on Thursday.
Pakistan has been committed to building industrial clusters in recent years to improve its ability to undertake the relocation of Chinese industries. Chinese companies have also been paying continuous attention to the implementation of preferential policies in Pakistan’s special economic zones.
In this regard, Haque said: “We have learned a lot from the Chinese experience of developing special economic zones.”
Ambassador Haque said, the tariff reduction arrangements for the Phase-II of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) were officially implemented on January 1 this year.
Talking about China-Pakistan trade relations during COVID-19 pandemic, he pointed out: “First of all, we are very happy that China has posted a very positive and more than 3% growth in the second quarter. Despite the pandemic, the first quarter of this year we saw our bilateral trade increase.” In this second quarter, there was a little dip because of the disruption of the international travel. The updated FTA is very important. Over 300 items are now enjoying duty free access to each other countries, including fisheries and pharmaceuticals. So there are many opportunities for the traders of the two countries to work in this area. We hope that in the months and years to come, our trade will increase from our previous figures.”
Talking about his experience in the first month of his new duty, Ambassador Haque first mentioned the second strategic dialogue between China and Pakistan which was held in August in south China’s Hainan Province. It was a very, very important meeting after the visit of President of Pakistan to China in March.
“While thanking China for its very valuable support to us during the pandemic, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi appreciated the announcement made by Chinese President Xi Jinping that whenever a vaccine is developed, it would be considered a public good. And it should be accessible to all countries, especially the developing countries,” he added.
Regarding ML-1 railway a multiplier effect for the Phase II of CPEC, he said, The spectrum of Pakistan-China relationship is very broad and very deep, adding,
“We cooperate in all areas from defense to security, from trade to investment, culture, education, science and technology, agriculture, and tourism. CPEC is a very important element of our relationship. It’s a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative.”
“And one of our focuses will be to see that all projects, the ongoing projects and those of which have been conceived in the early harvest and the first phase are completed on time.
The industrial development cooperation of the phase two is also in sync with the social economic development agenda of our current government. So these will be very important areas that I’ll be working on during my term,” he said.
