Islamabad: Federal Minister for Investment Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh has said that the 75-year diplomatic relationship between Pakistan and China remains an unparalleled model of bilateral cooperation despite bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles affecting investment inflows.
He expressed these views while addressing a ceremony titled 'Celebrating Long-Term Pak-China Cooperation,' organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on the occasion of the launch of a report titled 'Charting the Evolution from CPEC's First Phase to its Transformative Second Phase.'
The minister observed that China had emerged as the world's second-largest economy after lifting around 800 million people out of poverty, whereas Pakistan continued to struggle with structural and bureaucratic challenges. He revealed that a proposed amendment aimed at facilitating Chinese textile investment had remained pending for six months despite approval from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif due to cumbersome procedures.
Deputy Head of Mission at the Chinese Embassy, Shi Yuanqiang, said the year marked the 75th anniversary of Pak-China diplomatic relations, which had demonstrated resilience during periods of global upheaval. He stated that Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were committed to taking bilateral relations to the people-to-people level.
Executive Director of SDPI Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri said that while the operationalization of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) remained necessary, several initiatives were constrained by IMF programme conditions. He stressed that the major challenge for the next phase of Pakistan-China cooperation was transforming government-level goodwill into meaningful business-to-business engagement through regulatory reforms, security assurances and policy predictability.
SDPI Deputy Executive Director (Research) Dr. Sajid Amin Javed said the core issue was not the strength of bilateral ties but how to convert the partnership from a government-to-government framework into sustainable business-to-business cooperation.
Former Managing Director of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Hamid Sharif, highlighted the historic support extended by both countries to each other, including the construction of the Karakoram Highway in which over 1,000 lives were lost. He said China presently accounted for 53 percent of Pakistan's foreign direct investment.
However, he pointed out that although bilateral trade had exceeded 45 billion dollars, Pakistan's exports to China stood at only 2.4 billion dollars. He added that Pakistani exporters had utilized only 30 percent of available preferential concessions, while SEZs established under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor continued to underperform due to regulatory uncertainty, unclear tax treatment and bureaucratic red tape.
Research Fellow at SDPI Dr. Khalid Waleed, while presenting the report, stated that China had played a key role in addressing Pakistan's energy crisis. He noted that the second phase of CPEC would focus on green energy, industry, mining and technology, potentially attracting investments ranging from 30 to 50 billion dollars into SEZs and creating thousands of jobs.
During the panel discussion, Senior Advisor of China Energy Engineering Group Dr. Hassan Daud Butt said Pakistan and China shared a long-term vision for economic modernization extending towards 2047-49. He also noted that Pakistan's inaugural Panda Bond had been oversubscribed five times.
Dr. Syed Hasnat Shah from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) remarked that history offered no comparable example of two countries with different political systems, cultures and languages remaining consistently aligned over 75 years of diplomatic relations.