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Citing the booming Sino-India trade, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today expressed concern over his country's comparatively lower volume of trade with all weather ally China and blamed the previous regimes for not taking proper steps to advance business ties with Beijing.
Sharif, who arrived here on July 3, said he would set up a "China Cell" in his office to supervise progress of Chinese projects to oversee and pursue the execution of Chinese projects to steer Pakistan out of the energy crisis.
Speaking at the Chinese city of Guangzhou today about the achievement of his six-day tour, Sharif said he "noted with concern" the trade volume of Pakistan with China stood at USD 12 billion compared to India's over USD 66 billion last year.
The concern was apparently that China-Pakistan trade volume was low despite the "all weather ties", while Sino-India trade posted higher volumes despite troubled ties. The India-China trade posted over USD 74 billion in 2011 and the two countries set the target of USD 100 billion by 2015.
"Such a situation was not prevailing during 1990-91 and what happened required deep probe," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Sharif as saying.
Sharif served as Prime Minister, in 1990-93 and 1997-98 and returned to power after winning general elections in May.
He regretted that the steps which were required during the last one decade had not been taken and reiterated that tough steps should be taken to address the issues, as Pakistan was currently facing law and order situation, energy crises and other issues.
He said he had held very fruitful meetings with the Chinese leadership including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during which the two sides inked eight new agreements including setting the economic corridor.
Sharif referring to the delay in execution of 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydro power project, observed that it was put on the back-burner during the last three decades.
If completed in two and half years, there would be issue of laying down transmission lines as nobody had ever thought about it, as they only sat idle with crossed fingers, he said referring to previous Gen Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) regimes.
He said those responsible should be held accountable for showing such slackness towards the important power project. He said for tackling such complex issues, they would have to take tough decisions in the larger national interests.
About the Pak-China trade corridor connecting China's Xijiang with Pakistan's Gwadar Port, he said it would bring change in the socio-economic uplift of the whole region.
Also steps would be taken to turn the Gwadar port a real trade hub, he said.
Shairf chose to visit China first after taking over power to reaffirm close ties between the two countries, besides Beijing and Guangzhou, he visited Shanghai.
