China keenly awaits premier’s visit to Boao

BEIJING: China attached high importance to the participation of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia that is scheduled to begin in the Chinese Hainan Province from Sunday.

Besides delivering key-note address at this high-profile economic forum, he is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping to hold bilateral talks. According to the Chinese media’s reports, this will be most important interaction between the two leaders in the context of the growing Sino-Pak decades’ long deep-rooted brotherly relationship. As an iron-brother, China attaches high importance to its strategic partnership with Pakistan that stood test of the time. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will reach China on April 8 on a three-day visit to represent the country at the Boao Forum.

China has just completed its five-year of development and formed a new government, as well as re-electing Xi Jinping for another constitutional tenure. In this context, the forthcoming meeting between President Xi and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will be highly important to further cementing the Sino-Pak ties, under the concept of BRI and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The other leaders who attend Boao Forum will include Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, , Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

The UNO’s Secretary General and the President IMF are also expected to grace the occasion. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here that President Xi in his key-note at the opening session will introduce new measures to further open up the Chinese economy.

This year’s annual meeting is to be held on the theme "An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity". It will highlight reform, opening up and innovation. Wang said the BFA had become “an important bridge connecting China with the rest of the world” that is “distinctively Asian, while also visible globally.”