Chinese business leaders express confidence in ‘support and security’ in Pakistan — media

ISLAMABAD: After meeting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan this week, several Chinese business leaders have reposed their confidence in Pakistan’s “policy support and security,” Chinese media reported on Wednesday, months after a blast killed nine Chinese nationals among 13 people in northwestern Pakistan. 
The bus was carrying more than 30 people to a hydropower plant site in the remote upper Kohistan region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when the blast sent it hurtling down a mountainside on July 14. 
The Chinese embassy had demanded “practical and effective measures” to ensure safety of its nationals in Pakistan and preclude the possibility of future militant attacks against them. 
In a statement after his meeting with Chinese delegates on Monday, PM Khan’s office said he would hold monthly meetings to “review progress regarding issues faced by Chinese investors.” 
Chinese business leaders apprised the Pakistan PM of the security issues following the recent terrorist attacks targeting Chinese nationals, English-language Chinese newspaper Global Times reported. 
“Chinese enterprises encountered some difficulties in doing business in Pakistan and we expressed our expectations to the Pakistani prime minister, who showed that Pakistan attaches great importance to the development of Chinese enterprises in Pakistan,” Zhang Shilu, general manager of Zhengbang Agriculture Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, who attended the meeting, told Global Times.  
“It greatly increases the confidence of Chinese enterprises.” 
In a meeting with China’s envoy Nong Rong last month, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Pakistan was formulating a strategy to improve security of Chinese nationals and companies operating in the country. 
In August, a bomb attack injured one Chinese national and killed two Pakistani children on the Gwadar East Bay Expressway in the southwestern Balochistan province. 
The attacks come as China continues to invest multi-billion dollars to fund a flagship economic corridor in Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.