PRIME MINISTER Shehbaz Sharif recently visited China to further strengthen the ‘Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’. Besides a three-hour meeting with President Xi Jinping and another one with Premier Li Qiang, dozens of MoUs and agreements were signed. A joint statement described the bilateral relationship “as unshakable as a mountain”, “solid as a rock”, and “ironclad friends”.
A key takeaway of the visit was a decision to upgrade CPEC by building several new corridors, including growth, livelihood, innovation, and green corridors. There is also a commitment to rehabilitate the Karakoram Highway and optimise the use of the Gwadar port. The Chinese side will train 1,000 young Pakistanis in tech and agriculture. Huawei will train 200,000 Pakistani youth annually in IT. This would help towards digitalisation of the economy and promoting e-governance.