ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan was “paramount” for his government, as Pakistani and Chinese companies signed agreements worth about $440 million in the pharmaceutical and health care sectors.
Sharif was speaking at the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Business-to-Business Investment Conference in the federal capital, where around 300 Chinese delegates attended one of the largest sector-specific business events under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The conference comes amid security concerns surrounding Chinese interests in Pakistan. State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry said this week Islamabad had received security concerns from Chinese mine operators in early July and ordered agencies to increase deployment around its installations, personnel and cargo.
Twenty Chinese citizens were killed and 34 injured in militant attacks between 2021 and December 2024, according to Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority.
“I would like to say with fullest force at my command that the security of Chinese brothers and sisters in Pakistan is paramount for us, it is most important,” Sharif said. “We will leave no stone unturned to provide them with best possible security.”
The prime minister said the agreements signed during the conference would be translated into “actions and implementable documents,” adding they represented another step toward the second phase of CPEC, which both governments envision as shifting from state-led infrastructure projects to business-to-business investment and industrial cooperation.
Under the first phase of CPEC, China invested more than $30 billion in Pakistan, Sharif said. The second phase focuses on sectors including agriculture, information technology, manufacturing and health care.
Sharif said Friday’s agreements would help Pakistan manufacture life-saving medicines and vaccines while expanding exports to neighboring countries, and described China as one of Pakistan’s “most trusted” and “most dependable” friends.
He also said China had supported Pakistan’s mediation between the United States and Iran that led to the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, naming President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi among its backers.
Friday’s agreements follow a larger round signed during Sharif’s May visit to China, when Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office said 123 Pakistani and 436 Chinese companies concluded around 207 memorandums of understanding worth $7.54 billion at a business conference in Hangzhou, covering sectors ranging from battery storage and artificial intelligence to seeds, fisheries and vaccine manufacturing.
