Accords worth $8.5bn signed during PM’s China visit

Pakistan and China on Thursday vowed to further cement bilateral trade and strategic ties, as both sides inked 21 different MoUs and joint ventures worth around $8.5 billion, besides formally launching the second phase of the China-Pakis­tan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The MoUs were signed between the two countries with regard to cooperation in the development of CPEC 2.0, science and technology, IT, media, investment, agriculture, etc. On the last day of his visit to China, PM Shehbaz Sharif met his counterpart, Premier Li Qiang, and attended an investors’ conference. According to the PM Office, PM Shehbaz and his Chinese counterpart reaffirmed to work together in a meeting that the former termed “most productive”. “Both sides also agreed to continue working closely on the next phase of upgraded CPEC 2.0, with its five new corridors,” an official statement said. During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted the “significant contribution” of the CPEC to Pakistan’s socio-economic development in the past decade. He also stressed the need for early implementation of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, the Karakoram Highway realignment and operationalisation of the Gw­­adar Port.