We must learn from China’s economic vision, says Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal remarked that it has become necessary for Pakistan to follow China’s economic vision.

"We have to learn from China, how China with its political stability, how China with its social solidarity and harmony, and how China with the pursuit of its economic policies and vision has become a success story in the world."

Speaking at the launch of China Pakistan Economic Corridor long-term plan on Monday, Iqbal praised the ability of Chinese leadership to uplift its economy and make it the biggest economy in the world.

“We need to learn from the wisdom Chinese leadership have shown, and the path Chinese leadership have followed to bring about [the] biggest miracle of human civilization,” he said, explaining that China went from being the least developed country to world’s fast-developing country.

The Chinese leadership realised that if “they are not able to defeat poverty then it will have no dignified position in the world.”

China has become the export engine in the world because it has mastered low-cost production, he remarked. “We should follow economic miracle of China.”

He added, “CPEC, for the first time, offers an opportunity to Pakistan to join China in a community of shared destiny and prosperity.”

The biggest dimension of CPEC was bringing in economic cooperation between China and Pakistan friendship, said Ahsan. "We should have done this decades ago." 

On the bond between China and Pakistan, he remarked: “Our friendship is higher than the Himalayas, deeper than deepest of oceans and sweeter than sweetest of honey.”

China has proven to be the most trusted friend of Pakistan, he said, adding that Pakistan was facing many problems when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government came to power in 2013. 

The federal interior minister remarked that for “socialism to prosper we must combat poverty,” adding that “our ideologies are hollow and meaningless if we are a poorly developed country.”