Pakistani business community urges govt to follow China model

Islamabad: Pakistani business community has urged the government for learning from the Chinese model to cope with poverty and improve its economy as China had reportedly uplifted over 700 million poor people from poverty since its reform.

Beside opening up in late 1970s, China has become the second largest economy in the world in a short span of time, said Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While addressing as chief guest an event organized by prominent businessman Muhammad Saleem Mughal to celebrate Chinese New Year, Shakeel Munir informed that Chinese annual imports were around USD 246 billion in December 2021, but Pakistan’s share in them was less than USD 3 billion, which was quite negligible.

He urged the Pakistan business community to fully capitalize on the revised FTA with China to promote exports to this huge market of over 1.4 billion people.

The ICCI President believed that the Prime Minister Imran Khan in his ongoing four-day visit to China would attend the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing besides holding bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and premier Li Keqiang.

He mentioned that the the prime minister would also meet with prominent business leaders of China and hoped that this visit would contribute towards further strengthening the bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries.

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year 2022 or Spring Festival fell on February 1st, 2022, starting year of the Tiger.