By Anzal Amin
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar announced on Wednesday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would undertake an official visit to China from May 23 to May 26, which would include a vibrant B2B business forum to further deepen commercial ties.
He made the announcement during the launching ceremony of the IBI Pakistan Digital Economy Headquarters in Islamabad, describing the platform as a powerful symbol of the enduring Pakistan-China partnership and a new chapter of digital collaboration.
Last year, PM Shehbaz undertook a five-day official visit to China, during which he met the Chinese leadership and attended the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State Summit in Tianjin.
During the visit, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to further deepening and strengthening the long-standing Pakistan-China partnership, underpinned by strategic cooperation.
DPM Dar, in his keynote address, said that the launch of the IBI headquarters marked a transformative milestone in the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Partnership.
Highlighting PM Shehbaz’s vision to establish Pakistan as a regional hub for digital innovation, he said that the Pakistan-China partnership was transitioning from physical infrastructure, such as the Karakoram Highway and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) energy projects, toward “intelligent infrastructure”, AI, ICT, and digital connectivity.
“Today, we are moving from roads to networks, from physical infrastructure to digital architecture…We are building a digital Silk Road today, beginning with the launch of the IBI headquarters in Islamabad,” the deputy prime minister said.
He told the gathering that under CPEC 2.0, cooperation was expanding beyond traditional sectors into digital transformation, smart cities, and climate resilience.
Sharing optimistic economic indicators, including a fall in inflation, rising GDP and a dive in the policy interest, he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to returning Pakistan to the roadmap of becoming a top-20 global economy.
With the world’s fifth-largest population and a rapidly growing youth demographic, DPM Dar emphasised that Pakistan was no longer “waiting for its moment” but has reached a stage of immense IT potential and global competitiveness.
He welcomed Beijing United Information Technology (IBI) to Pakistan, noting that its platform —serving millions of enterprises across 100 industrial sectors in China — reflected strong international confidence in Pakistan’s economy.
He also lauded the efforts of Pakistani Ambassador to Beijing Khalil Hashmi for professionally facilitating B2B forums, noting that 30% of the $10 billion in memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed during recent visits to China have already been translated into finalised projects.
Earlier, in his address, Ambassador Hashmi explained that if Amazon and Alibaba were the e-commerce giants of consumer goods, IBI was the e-commerce giant of industrial goods.
He said that IBI was a Fortune 500 company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Hashmi said that the IBI launch represented a massive opportunity, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, offering a gateway to a vast Chinese market — spanning agriculture, aquaculture, and industrial goods — and, through China, a path to the rest of the world.
He said that by deepening digital industrial cooperation and synchronising government and corporate resources, IBI has successfully translated high-level leadership directives into tangible results.
“Today, we are witnessing the convergence of two transformative forces: the enduring friendship between Pakistan and China and the unstoppable rise of the digital economy,” he added.
Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja and Special Assistant to PM Haroon Akhtar Khan also addressed the launching ceremony.
