By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pressed China’s ambassador on Wednesday to accelerate implementation of agreements reached during last month’s state visit to Beijing, singling out the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and a $7 billion slate of corporate deals as priorities demanding urgent action.
Sharif met with Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong at PM House in Islamabad, where the two discussed a range of bilateral issues following the premier’s May trip to China — a visit that included meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang and yielded a string of memoranda of understanding spanning agriculture, information technology, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, battery storage, solar technology and pharmaceuticals.
“It is now incumbent upon the two sides to work together to deliver on the decisions taken by the leadership of the two countries,” Sharif told Jiang, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The May 24 Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Investment Conference in Hangzhou, which Sharif chaired, generated agreements and MoUs valued at more than $7 billion. The premier told the ambassador that timely follow-up on those corporate understandings was essential, his office said.
Sharif’s push for implementation reflects a pattern familiar to Pakistan’s economic diplomacy: translating high-profile state visits and headline investment figures into on-the-ground activity has historically proven difficult, with many agreements stalling at the MoU stage. His explicit instruction to “immediately initiate necessary actions” suggests an awareness in Islamabad of that gap.
The meeting’s centerpiece was CPEC 2.0, the reconfigured iteration of the flagship $60-plus billion corridor project that Beijing and Islamabad are steering away from large-scale infrastructure construction toward industrial cooperation, special economic zones and the monetization of Pakistan’s vast but underdeveloped mineral reserves. Sharif stressed the need to deepen cooperation in agriculture, IT, industries and mines and minerals under the new framework, according to the statement.
The Karakoram Highway realignment — a long-delayed upgrade to the strategic road linking Pakistan to China’s Xinjiang region — was also on the agenda, with both sides agreeing to fast-track progress on the project. Security, counterterrorism and defense cooperation, as well as economic and financial support, rounded out the discussion, the statement said.
Jiang, who congratulated Sharif on the Eid al-Adha holiday, praised the premier’s China trip as a success and reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to broadening cooperation. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international developments, the statement noted without elaborating.
Pakistan and China mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, with commemorations held in both countries. Sharif, speaking during his China visit, called it 75 years of “glorious partnership,” crediting the two countries’ founding leaders for laying the relationship’s foundations. The partnership spans trade, energy, defense and infrastructure, and Chinese officials have described it as an “all-weather” strategic relationship — language Sharif’s office repeated Wednesday.
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