Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Jiang Zaidong Monday said that it is a high time to take profound and substantial steps to further strengthen China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.
“We are ready to expand cooperation with Pakistan in education, media, think tanks, youth exchanges, and the film and television industries, to foster mutual learning between civilizations and strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties,” the ambassador said talking to media after addressing a ceremony.
The ambassador said, “We will help Pakistan in developing human resources, increasing training opportunities, and implement the bilateral initiative of sending 1,000 Pakistanis to China for modern agricultural training.”
He said that at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari paid a successful state visit to China earlier this month. “We are pleased to see that since the establishment of the new Pakistani government last year, China and Pakistan have maintained close high-level exchanges.”
He said, “We are ready to work with Pakistani side for the implementation, and turn those important consensus into tangible practices and fruitful outcomes of our bilateral cooperation.”
The ambassador said, “We must aim high to deepen high-level strategic cooperation.” He added the development of China-Pakistan relations over the past year further indicates that high-level strategic guidance is the fundamental guarantee for the steady and long-term development of our bilateral relations.”
He said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Pakistan in 2015, and in the next year, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan, presenting significant moments and development opportunities for China-Pakistan relations.
He said that China is ready to work with Pakistan to fully understand and appreciate the profound significance and valuable insights from President Xi’s historic visit and consistently view and develop China-Pakistan relations from a strategic level.
The ambassador said, “By combining a long-term vision with pragmatic actions, we aim to continuously advance the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our diplomatic relations with the vivid practice of high-quality CPEC development and other cooperation.”
He said that China is ready to deepen practical cooperation with Pakistan in various fields, work together to upgrade CPEC cooperation, and help Pakistan consolidate its development foundations and unleash its development potential.
“We are prepared to work with Pakistan to ensure effective implementation, focusing on key projects. We’ll continue to advance the realignment of the Karakoram Highway Phase II and the upgrade of the Main Line-1 railway project, actively promote the comprehensive development and operation of Gwadar Port, and ensure the stable operation of the Khunjerab Pass besides expanding cooperation in agricultural.”
He said that last year, China-Pakistan agricultural trade exceeded $1 billion, with Pakistan enjoying a valuable surplus of $237 million. On February 14 this year, the first batch of 26.5 tons of high-value-added buffalo dairy products arrived in China, which is great significance, showcasing the resilience and prospects of our bilateral agricultural cooperation.
He said that while advancing existing agricultural projects, we should promptly identify a second batch of CPEC agricultural projects, so that grains, cotton, oil, meat and dairy products can all be covered.
Jiang Zaidong said, “We aim to promote modern and efficient agricultural cooperation. We’ll expand new models like contract farming to enhance the sense of fulfillment for enterprises and farmers in both countries.”
He said that while focusing on cultivating growth points, We’ll accelerate the construction of model Special Economic Zones (SEZs), attract more export-oriented enterprises, explore cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), develop cross-border E-commerce collaborations, and welcome third-party participation in CPEC cooperation, to better harness the potential of B2B collaborations.
He said that China will continue to carry out more small but beautiful projects to benefit people of Pakistan’s livelihoods.
