Pakistani exports to China to set new records this year: envoy

BEIJING: The bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and China and the Pakistani exports to China would set new records by the end of the current year, a diplomat said on Tuesday.

“China is Pakistan’s largest trading partner, besides being the second largest export destination and this year, despite the pandemic, our bilateral trade is growing a big percentage, especially the figures of this year,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque told China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an interview.

He said in the first three quarters, the bilateral trade between the two countries has grown by more than 60 per cent and Pakistani exports to China have grown 75 per cent.

“So, we are hoping that by the end of this year, both the bilateral trade volume and the Pakistani exports to China would have record and unprecedented figures,” he added.

“[At present], the bilateral trade volume is $20 billion but we are hoping that this year, it will touch $25 billion. Pakistan exports have been around $1.8 billion, but this year, we are hoping that it will reach $3 billion but still, we feel that we can double this number in the next four to five years,” he added.

To further enhance Pakistani exports to China, the ambassador recommended that textile and sports goods are the strongest sectors in Pakistan and could play an important role.

“Pakistan is one of the few countries, which have the whole value chain of the textile industry from weaving to finishing and textile products are very well known. Pakistan is the largest producer of footballs and Pakistani footballs have been officially used in the football world cups,” he added.

About the role of China International Import Expo (CIIE) to help promote Pakistani market in China and the world, he said, during the last four years, CIIE has been a very important platform and it has given an exposure to Pakistani traders and businessmen to showcase their products to the world’s largest market.

To a question regarding China’s role in further opening up for foreign investment in Pakistan, Ambassador Haque said: “In the second phase of [the] China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), we have opened up the respective markets and deepened the access to our traders.”

Now, more than 1,000 products enjoy duty-free access to each other’s market so it is a big boost to bilateral trade between Pakistan and China, he added.

Ambassador Haque said that in future, Pakistan would like to add and expand the free trade agreements going into the services sector because the services sectors for both Pakistan and China form the major portion of the GDPs of the two countries.

“Earlier, it used to be agriculture, industry, but now [the] services sector is the backbone of the economy. So, we would like the services sectors to be added in our future negotiations with China,” he added.

About further growth in the China-Pakistan bilateral economic and trade cooperation, he said, the most important part of the phase two of CPEC covers areas of agriculture, especially modernisation of agriculture and science and technology in Pakistan.

In the recently held meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee of CPEC, both countries decided to establish a working group on information technology, industry, industrialisation cooperation, besides setting up special economic zones across Pakistan.

“We are inviting Chinese investors and companies to set up their manufacturing plants in Pakistan,” the ambassador added.