Chinese investment firm to establish textile parks in Pakistan, aiming for $5bn in exports

ISLAMABAD: Chinese investment company RUYI Shangdong will set up textile parks in Pakistan and will invite around 100 Chinese textile firms to invest in the facilities, a statement from the Prime Minister Office said on Friday.

The Board of Investment and RUYI on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this project, under which the first park will be inaugurated later this year and will be completed in three years.

These parks are expected to export products worth $2 billion in the first phase and another $5 billion in the second phase, which will create 300,000 to 500,000 local jobs, the statement said.

The MoU was signed as a nine-member delegation of the RUYI group led by Chairman QiuYafu. Chinese officials also held a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who also oversaw the signing ceremony.

The two neighbouring nations have long been close allies and Islamabad relies heavily on Beijing for its development and economic projects.

The statement said the park will run on zero-carbon automatic technology by using solar energy.

RUYI already runs a coal power plant in the Sahiwal district of the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab.

PM Shehbaz also formed a special committee under Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar comprising federal ministers for commerce, investment and privatisation, industries and production, a foreign secretary, a representative of Special Investment Facilitation Council and Zafaruddin Mehmood.

Dar, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Industries and Production Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, Privatisation Minister Abdul Aleem Khan, Power Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari and relevant senior officials attended the meeting.

Shaanxi firms invited to invest in energy sectors

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik, on Friday invited Chinese enterprises, especially those from Shaanxi province, to invest in Pakistan’s energy and petroleum sectors, adding that petroleum and coal companies from the country were looking to collaborate with Shaanxi companies. 

In his opening remarks at China (Shaanxi)-Pakistan Conference for Economic and Trade Cooperation on the sidelines of the 8th Silk Road International Expo at Xi'an Shaanxi Province, he said: “Top companies from Pakistan specialising in upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum and coal companies were looking to work with Shaanxi Companies to collaborate through investment, joint ventures and technology transfer.”

The minister said that the 8th Silk Road International Expo was not just a celebration of trade and investment; it was a celebration of the spirit of cooperation that defines the relationship between Pakistan and China.

Beijing has been developing road, rail and port infrastructure in Pakistan as part of its $65 billion investment called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).