PM Shehbaz lands in Beijing, will hold 'high-level' meetings with Chinese leadership

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reached Beijing on Sunday, where he would have “high-level engagements” with the Chinese leadership, including President Xi Jinping and his counterpart, Li Qiang. PM Shehbaz landed in Hangzhou on Saturday, kicking off his four-day official visit to China. He addressed the Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Investment Conference in Hangzhou earlier today, following which he reached Beijing, where he was received by Chinese Minister of Environment and Ecology Huang Runqiu. “During his stay in Beijing, the prime minister will hold high-level engagements, including meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qian,g to further strengthen Pakistan-China all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and advance cooperation under CPEC Phase-II, particularly in trade, investment, industry, agriculture, science and technology, and people-to-people exchanges,” a statement by the PM’s Office (PMO) said. It added that in Hangzhou, the PM chaired the opening ceremony of the third Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference, which was focused on “charging infrastructure, battery energy storage and solar technologies, and pharmaceuticals”. “He also engaged with the provincial leadership, leading Chinese enterprises, including StarCharge, CATL and Xiuzheng Pharmaceutical, to explore practical investment and industrial cooperation,” the statement said, adding that PM Shehbaz also visited Alibaba Headquarters, where he was received by Executive Chairman Joe Tsai. PM highlights 4 areas for Pak-China cooperation While addressing the Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Investment Conference in Hangzhou, PM listed four areas of importance for Pakistan-China cooperation: agriculture, IT, special economic zones (SEZs), and mines and minerals. Noting that Pakistan was “basically an agrarian economy”, the premier noted the 1,000 Pakistanis who received advanced training in China last year were now back in the country “doing a great job”. He cal