Muhammad Tipu, Pakistani Consul General to Chengdu, had delivered three speeches at the China-South Asia Cooperation Forum (CSACF) and Mayors Forum held in Yuxi, China’s Yunnan Province on June 11. During the interval of his speeches, Tip did not avoid giving comments on the two Pakistan’s economic figures that haven’t met the previous expectations raised by the reporter from Economic-Daily & China Economic Net.
Pakistan’s fiscal year begins on July 1 in the calendar year. According to the latest statistics from the SBP in early June, the total volume and growth rate of Pakistan’s exports to China in the first 10 months of this fiscal year were significantly lower than those of the United States, with exports to China of $1.476 billion, 1.59% increase. However, exports to the United States in the same period totaled $3.367 billion, with 6.63% increase. Given this, Tipu said that trade volume is only part of the relations between countries. Pakistan should promote exports to China, but reducing the trade deficit with China is the long-term policy goal.”Chinese investment in Pakistan brings far more than the value of trade itself, but also infrastructure development, business cooperations, tourism and so on. Special economic zones are also the key elements of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and will be the main focus of the two countries in the next few years.”
During the Governors and Mayors Forum and the Poverty Reduction Forum, Tipu mentioned that Chinese government has invested nearly $62 billion in CPEC. When the reporter asked further questions about the correlation between China-Pakistan trade and the investment volume, and why the highlighted agricultural growth expectation of Pakistan in the new fiscal year is about 0.5 per cent lower than the average GDP, Tipu pointed out that in economy, there is gestation period while economies transform and change themselves internally. “Policy reforms have been taken in the past couple of months and years and Pakistani Ministry of Commerce has undertaken a lot reforms. The institutional reforms within Pakistan are also taking place. We have to give time. I think in the next few years you will see a demonstrable impact,” Tipu added.
“With the revised FTA with China, lots of Pakistani products will have more opportunities to be exported to China. This is a question of time. Once the inspection and quarantine problems are solved—-e.x. we are sure that mangoes, Pakistani king of fruits are able to be exported to China, then dairy products, meat, beef, fish and sea food are able to be exported to China as well. So I think the next few years you will see a very demonstrable change,” Tipu said, “I hope that more Chinese will know that Pakistani mangoes are very good,” Tipu added.
During the Media Forum in the afternoon, Tipu stressed that in today’s world, perception management has become a challenge. He also highlighted the importance of objective exposure and balanced coverage on Pakistan’s economic development and the CPEC construction with the example of a TV programme called CPEC Time. It is informed that the CPEC Time will report deeper into the front-line of the CPEC and provide more cutting-edge and fresh information of China-Pakistan economic life.