BEIJING, Oct 20 (APP):In mid-October, the Chief Minister of Sindh Province launched a major investment promotion campaign in Shanghai, China, adopting Shanghai’s mature economic development model to guide Sindh’s future growth.
This fruitful event yielded 34 memorandums of understanding and cooperation agreements – covering government-to-government and business-to-business cooperation across energy, manufacturing, digital technology, agriculture and logistics – marking a new stage of high-quality economic collaboration between China and Pakistan.
These views were expressed by Prof Cheng Xizhong, Senior Research Fellow at the Charhar Institute, a non-governmental Chinese think-tank on diplomacy and international studies based in Beijing.
In a statement, he said that Chinese investment has long served as a strong driving force for Pakistan’s industrial progress. A host of flagship Chinese projects are now fully operational across Sindh, bringing substantial economic and social benefits. Shanghai Electric’s Thar power plant, CMEC’s coal mining project, China Three Gorges’ wind farms, BYD’s expanding automobile business, and the Sino-Pak joint tire manufacturing venture have significantly optimized Sindh’s energy structure, boosted local employment, and lifted regional industrial capacity.
These stable, productive projects fully demonstrate the reliability and sustainability of Chinese investment in Pakistan.
Prof Cheng remarked that the newly signed agreements further upgrade bilateral economic cooperation. Beyond traditional infrastructure and energy sectors, the two sides have expanded collaboration into emerging high-end fields, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, smart city construction, coal-to-chemicals and modern agricultural processing. This structural shift shows that China-Pakistan economic ties are moving toward technology-oriented, high-value and future-focused industrial cooperation.
Endowed with a strategic geographical location, rich natural resources and a young labor force, Sindh boasts enormous development potential. Combined with China’s complete industrial chain, advanced technologies and mature experience in opening-up, the two economies enjoy notable economic complementarity and broad prospects for cooperation, he added.
Overall, China’s investment in Pakistan follows the principle of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. It effectively accelerates Pakistan’s economic transformation and industrial upgrading while helping Chinese enterprises expand their global footprint. With the steady implementation of these new agreements, pragmatic China-Pakistan cooperation will continue to deepen, setting a high-standard model for high-quality Belt and Road partnership worldwide, he concluded.
Source: APP (Associated Press of Pakistan)
