DM Monitoring
BEIJING: Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Syed Ali Asad Gilani, has said that strengthening strategic cooperation, expand-ing bilateral trade, attracting Chinese investment and enhancing security collaboration will be among his key priorities dur-ing his tenure in Beijing.
In an interview, Ambassador Gilani described Pakistan-China relations as exceptionally important, deeply rooted and di-versified, emphasizing his commitment to further consolidating and broadening the longstanding partnership between the two countries.
He said his priorities would include strengthening political understanding, military-to-military cooperation, strategic co-ordination and economic engagement, while exploring new avenues to expand bilateral cooperation across various sectors.
Highlighting the need to enhance economic ties, Gilani observed that bilateral trade remained below its potential and stressed the importance of promoting Chinese investment in Pakistan.
He said Pakistan should focus on attracting investment in manufacturing and processing industries, enabling the country to add value to its raw materials and increase exports to China and international markets. “This is a win-win equation,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s strategic geographical location offered significant opportunities for its integration into China’s value chains and logistics networks.
The ambassador also underscored security cooperation as a major priority. He stressed that both countries were deter-mined to combat terrorism and ensure the safety and security of their citizens.
Gilani also highlighted the importance of strengthening connectivity between China’s Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s northern areas through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
He said improving cross-border connectivity and facilitating vehicle movement through the Khunjerab Pass would help promote trade, economic activities and people-to-people exchanges, despite challenging climatic conditions. On educational and technological cooperation, the ambassador said Pakistan could benefit significantly from China’s achievements in science, technology and innovation. He emphasized the need to strengthen educational linkages, expand scholarship opportunities and orient Pakistan’s education system towards high-tech, innovation-driven and value-added sec-tors. Describing China as an important partner in Pakistan’s development journey, he said there was a valuable opportunity for Pakistan to learn from China’s experience and utilize bilateral cooperation to upgrade its economic and technological capabilities. Gilani further stressed the importance of strengthening people-to-people contacts and promoting mutual understanding between the societies of both countries.
He said he intended to engage with Chinese communities through various available platforms and called for greater ef-forts to improve awareness about Pakistan in China and about China in Pakistan.
Turning to the next phase of CPEC, the ambassador said the transition from CPEC 1.0 to CPEC 2.0 represented a shift from infrastructure development towards high-quality and value-added economic growth.
He explained that while the first phase primarily focused on infrastructure development, the next phase would concen-trate on effectively utilizing the infrastructure already established to enhance productivity and accelerate economic trans-formation.
He identified agriculture, industrialization, science and technology, mining, artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT) as key areas for cooperation under CPEC 2.0.
The ambassador said Pakistan aimed to transform its economy from one largely dependent on primary commodities into a more diversified, industrialized and value-added economy, with China playing an important role in facilitating this transi-tion.
He reiterated that promoting high-value growth, strengthening industrial capacity and utilizing China’s technological expertise would remain central to his efforts to advance Pakistan-China cooperation.
Gilani expressed confidence that the two countries could further strengthen their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership by expanding collaboration in traditional areas while exploring emerging op-portunities in technology, innovation, trade and investment.
