By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s just concluded visit to China saw the signing of eight memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in diverse fields, including a power project that has raised India’s hackles.
“The centrepiece of the president’s visit is the MoU signed on building a 7,000 MW hydro power project in Bunji in the Northern Areas,” Online news agency Tuesday quoted presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar as saying.
India has vigorously objected to the project, saying it is being constructed on territory that Pakistan is illegally occupying and that it would lead to flooding in its part of Jammu and Kashmir.
The project would be built on a BOOT (build, operate, own and transfer) basis with total foreign investment.
The MoU was signed between Pakistan’s Water and Power Ministry and China’s Three Gorges Project Corporation, which has recently built the world’s largest hydro power project in China, capable of generating over 22,000 MW and with a water reservoir spread over 650 sq km.
Zardari, during his four-day visit to Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, China’s two most prosperous models of economic development, not only witnessed the signing of MoUs particularly on power generation and agriculture, but also held a series of meetings with China’s business giants.
Babar said Zardari has been emphasising on economic diplomacy and recently asked the government to set up an economic wing in the foreign ministry for this purpose.
“The fourth just concluded visit to China is part of the aggressive economic diplomacy launched under directions of President Zardari,” the spokesperson said.
Zardari also invited private companies in China engaged in building small and medium dams to bid for the construction of 12 such dams in Pakistan’s four provinces. Five dams will be built in Balochistan, four in Sindh, two in Punjab and two in the North West Frontier Province, for which sites have already been identified.
Pakistan and China also signed a MoU on cooperation in drug regulation and production of hepatitis B and C vaccines.
The Sindh Agricultural University in Tandojam and the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou province signed a MoU for cooperation in agricultural research, plant protection and animal husbandry.
Zardari also visited the Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute where an MoU was signed for setting up a model fisheries farm in Pakistan and also to train Pakistani fishermen in advanced techniques.
Two separate MoUs were signed by the Board of Investment of Pakistan and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Guangdong province, and the Guangdong sub-council of the CCPIT.
This was Zardari’s fourth visit to China since the first in October last year, when he declared that he would visit China every three months along with experts.
The aim was to learn from the Chinese model of development on one hand and also to further boost trade and economic relations between the two countries.