Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: China provided $15 million worth of aid to Pakistan to support the country’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese envoy Yao Jing said at a webinar. The Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) on Thursday co-hosted a virtual meeting of government officials, entrepreneurs, and experts to discuss the post-coronavirus pandemic relationship between the two friendly nations in light of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The webinar, titled “New Opportunities and Challenges of China-Pakistan Cooperation in the Post-Epidemic Era,” had two keynote speakers, including Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing and Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed. In her opening remarks, Research & Development International (RDI) head and China’s former population minister Dr Baige Zhao said President Xi Jinping’s speech on improving connectivity through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at last month’s high-level video conference showed her country’s will to start a new era of globalization.
The BRI, she added, would play a key role in promoting peace and stability.
Ambassador Yao Jing said he had been personally witnessing the cooperation between the two countries since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Pakistan’s assistance to China in February, when China was facing Covid-19 crisis, and President Alvi’s visit to China expressed Pakistan’s solidarity with China, he said. Pakistan is the first country with whom China would share vaccine development research information, he added.
