President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain has said Shandong is most developed and industrialised province of China having huge opportunities for collaboration in various sectors including textile, energy, engineering and agro-based industry. While lauding the proposal by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, Ahsan Iqbal to establish China-Pakistan business platform for joint production in economic zones under CPEC, he said that Pakistan can also benefit from Shandong experience in soil and water conservation.
The proposal by Ahsan Iqbal is timely, encouraging and highly beneficial for Pakistan therefore it should be adopted immediately to begin a new era of development, he added.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the proposal for training of Pakistani human resource in Shandong province to learn about setting up and management of economic zones in Pakistan is very valuable suggestion.
The third proposal by the minister to establish linkages between universities in Shandong province and Pakistan for exchange of faculty and students as part of people-to-people contact and alignment of Pakistan exportable products with Chinese import needs to benefit the local manufacturers and increase trade volume with China is praiseworthy.
Pakistan needs export-led growth by re-orienting the production models and can be done by leaning the Chinese experiences and expertise for which business conferences will be purposeful. He said, "The CPEC raised investment profile of Pakistan in the world by making it safe haven for billions of Chinese investment, now it is our turn to make this project successful which would help Pakistan to become regional trading and industrialised hub."