Shehbaz Sharif says Chinese president surprised the world by announcing $46b investment in Pakistan
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that China announced investment in Pakistan at a time when conditions were not favourable in the country.
Addressing a reception held in Beijing, Sharif said that Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised the whole world with his historic speech in Islamabad when he announced $46 billion investment for the country. He said that while Chinese leadership fulfilled the demands of friendship with Pakistan, the opponents of the government, who staged the drama of sit-ins, are still not satisfied and do not want implementation of these agreements.
Sharif said that the elements involved in politics of sit-ins do not want to see the efforts to eliminate load-shedding in the country with cooperation from China to be successful. He said that speedy implementation of energy projects within a short period of 16 months under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is unprecedented in the history of the country. He said that seriousness of Chinese leadership can be judged from the fact that Chinese investment companies have started implementation of the projects with their own capital, without even waiting for the loans from the Chinese banks.
The Punjab CM further said that work will be carried out round the clock for the early completion of energy projects. He said that major energy projects, with Chinese cooperation, will be producing 5,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017 which will eliminate darkness from the country.
Sharif, while speaking at Islamabad airport on his return from the China visit, said that the visit had been highly result-oriented and would accelerate the pace of implementation of the projects. He said that the hospitality shown by the Chinese leadership and the people of China to Pakistani delegation will always be remembered. He said that transparency, speed and a high standard will be ensured in the execution of these projects.
