PM Imran says more to learn from China than any other country

CPEC has given a great opportunity to Pakistan to bring in foreign investment and get out of the difficult economic situation

BEIJING: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan could learn more from its all-weather strategic partner China than any other country in the world.

“We have a lot to learn from China. China went through a lot of problems that we face right now,” Khan told reporters in Beijing as he began his first official visit to the country since becoming prime minister

“Like Pakistan, China too had a lot of corruption and poverty. But the way it has dealt with corruption and poverty has been an example for not just Pakistan but for a lot of the developing world,” he said.

“We can learn more from China because China has recently developed as opposed to western economies, which are way ahead of us in terms of their development evolution,” he said.

The prime minister stressed on the economic potential of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“CPEC has given a great opportunity to Pakistan to bring in foreign investment and get out of the difficult economic situation which we are in,” he said.

“Pakistan has enormous potential, but unfortunately through mismanagement, we have not really achieved that potential through poor governance, [and] corruption being one of the main reasons. Corruption is always a reason that stops a country from achieving its potential,” he said, adding that China could share with Pakistan its expertise in fighting white-collar crime, which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led Pakistani government is also trying to combat.

“Since president Xi came to power, big powerful names have been convicted of corruption [in China],” he said, adding that fighting corruption was the number one area that he hoped to learn about during his visit to China.

But he said that poverty alleviation was another important area in which his country could gain from Beijing.

“What China has achieved, no country in human history has managed to achieve, getting 700 million people out of poverty in 30 years,” he said.

Khan said the main plank of his party’s manifesto was to bring people out of poverty, and that it was one area where he looked forward to meeting the Chinese leadership and learning from all the various steps taken by China to bring people out of poverty.

Trade imbalance with China:

Khan also spoke about the high level of Chinese exports to Pakistan and an ‘imbalance’ of Pakistani exports to the neighbouring country.

“Pakistan needs to export. Our trade balance with China is imbalanced. We import far, far more than we export to China. We want to get some help in pushing our exports. Our main problem in Pakistan right now is the current account deficit,” he said.

He said that Pakistan’s main export was textile and that he hoped his country would be able to export more value added textiles.

We have agricultural products, sports goods, surgical equipment, leather goods.

The Pakistani premier arrived in Beijing earlier on Thursday on a five-day official visit from November 2 to 5 on the invitation of the Chinese leadership during which he will hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other leaders.

 

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