ISLAMABAD: Chinese companies are ready to invest $15 billion in Pakistan’s petrochemical industry at the port of Gwadar, the investment promotion agency of Pakistan said on Sunday.
China has in recent years played a key role in developing the deepwater port on the Arabian Sea. Located in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Gwadar is at the heart of multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure projects that began in 2013.
“Chinese companies would invest in the petrochemical sector in Gwadar, including the project of energy pipeline from Gwadar to China,” Board of Investment (BOI) secretary Fareena Mazhar told the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
She added that talks related to the projects were underway, as BOI is working on 50 reforms to create a conducive investment environment and improve the ease of doing business in Pakistan.
Chinese business leaders met Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad last week and reposed their confidence in Pakistan’s “policy support and security,” months after a blast killed nine Chinese nationals working on a CPEC project in northwestern Pakistan.
In a statement after the meeting, Khan’s office said he would hold monthly meetings to “review progress regarding issues faced by Chinese investors.”
Last month, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced Pakistan was formulating a strategy to improve the security of Chinese nationals and companies operating in the country.
CPEC has seen Beijing’s pledge over $60 billion for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop land and sea trade routes in Asia and beyond.
China to invest $15 billion in petrochemical industry at Pakistan's Arabian Sea port
https://arab.news/63p2h
China to invest $15 billion in petrochemical industry at Pakistan's Arabian Sea port
- Investment would include a power pipeline project from Gwadar port to western China
- Pakistan said last month it is formulating a strategy to improve the security of Chinese companies operating in the country
Pakistan highlights economic reforms at Davos, eyes cooperation in AI, IT and minerals
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks at breakfast event in Davos at sidelines of World Economic Forum summit
- Pakistan, rich in gold, copper reserves, has sought cooperation with China, US, Gulf countries in its mineral sector
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted Pakistan’s recent economic reforms during the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos on Wednesday, saying that his country was eyeing greater cooperation in mines and minerals, information technology, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence with other states.
The Pakistani prime minister was speaking at the Pakistan Pavilion in Davos on the sidelines of the WEF summit at a breakfast event. Sharif arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday to attend the 56th annual meeting of the WEF, which brings together global business leaders, policymakers and politicians to speak on social, economic and political challenges.
Pakistan has recently undertaken several economic reforms, which include removing subsidies on energy and food, privatization of loss-making state-owned enterprises and expanding its tax base. Islamabad took the measures as part of reforms it agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a financial bailout package.
“We are now into mines and minerals business in a big way,” Sharif said at the event. “We have signed agreements with American companies and Chinese companies.”
Islamabad has sought to attract foreign investment in its critical minerals sector in recent months. In April 2025, Pakistan hosted an international minerals summit where top companies and government officials from the US, Saudi Arabia, China, Türkiye, the UK, Azerbaijan, and other nations attended.
Pakistan is rich in gold, copper and lithium reserves as well as other minerals, yet its mineral sector contributes only 3.2 percent to the countrys GDP and 0.1 percent to global exports, according to official figures.
Sharif said Pakistan has been blessed with infinite natural resources which are buried in its mountains in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and southwestern Balochistan regions.
“But we have now decided to go forward at lightning speed,” he said. “And we are also moving speedily in the field of crypto, AI, IT.”
He said the government’s fiscal and economic measures have reduced inflation from nearly 30 percent a few years ago to single-digit figures, adding that its tax-to-GDP ratio had also increased from 9 to 10.5 percent.
The prime minister admitted Pakistan’s exports face different kinds of challenges collectively, saying the country’s social indicators needed to improve.
“But the way forward is very clear: that Pakistan has to have an export-led growth,” he said.
SHARIF MEETS IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR
Separately, Sharif met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on improvements in Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators, efforts toward stability and progress on institutional reforms, a statement from Sharif’s office said.
He emphasized Pakistan’s commitment to fiscal discipline, revenue mobilization and sustainable development, it added.
The IMF managing director acknowledged and appreciated Pakistan’s reform efforts, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“Both sides exchanged views on the global economic outlook, challenges facing emerging economies, and the importance of multilateral cooperation in safeguarding economic stability,” the PMO said.
