President Asif Ali Zardari will arrive on a three-day visit to China today to participate in the first China-Eurasia Expo being held in the capital city of Xingjian Uygur Autonomous Region from September 1 to 5.
Besides attending the Expo, which is aimed at strengthening business-to-business linkages between the two countries, the President will meet Chinese Vice Premier Li Kequang.
President Zardari will also hold meetings with the Chinese corporate leaders including Goldwind, SinaTrans, TBEA, Orient Group, Foton, Jinchuan Group and China Development Bank.
During the meetings with Chinese corporate sector, the President is expected to discuss the prospects of enhanced Pak-China trade and investment cooperation, with focus on Chinese investment in Pakistan in the areas of energy, infrastructure, communication etc.
The President besides attending the opening ceremony of China-Eurasia Expo on Wednesday will also address the main event `China-Eurasia Forum on Economic Development and Cooperation’ on September 1. He will also visit the Pakistani pavilion being set up at the China-Eurasia Expo. The first China-Eurasia Expo, which will replace the former Urumqi Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Fair, will prove to be a platform of diplomacy between China and the Eurasian states and a channel that promotes Xinjiang’s cooperation with China’s neighboring countries particularly Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Mangolia, the Chinese officials said. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, situated in the northwest of China, occupies an area of 1.66 million square kilometers, which accounts for the longest boundary among China’s provinces and autonomous regions. It shares 5,600 kilometers of frontier with Mongolia in the northeast; Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the west; and Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in the southwest.
Xinjiang is home to around one thousand Pakistanis including 700 students.
The Xinjiang Medical University alone has 484 students and about 138 students have already graduated from this institution. Cities of Xinjiang have long been popular destinations for Pakistani businessmen and traders.
Habib Bank of Pakistan and the Urumqi City Commercial Bank established a relationship in 2006. In the year 2010, Pakistan and Xinjiang generated trade worth about $400 million. The current visit of President Zardari – who has toured China six times since he took oath as Pakistan’s head of state in late 2008 – for participation in the China-Eurasia Expo is expected to further strengthen the very close, time-tested and multifaceted ties that exist between the two friendly countries.
