BEIJING: Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has praised China’s development of smart cities and the digitalization of the economy and Pakistan could learn a lot from the development that happened in China in various fields. “China is a world leader in developing smart cities and digitalization of the economy. Pakistan can learn a lot from the development that has happened in China in the agriculture with the yields going up, innovation coming in, and also the digitalization of the agricultural economy,” he told China Global Television Network (CGTN) in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.2024 marks the 73rd anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic relations. Over the past seven decades, the two sides have developed an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. Regarding future development of the two countries going forward, he said, “It is a very old friendship and it can only grow. We are growing not only in political in economic terms, in military terms.” He said, the two countries were neighbors and had a close relationship on all issues the world, adding It was a relationship which was very strategic for both the countries. “And especially with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it is part of the BRI, it has become an even a stronger relationship with the years. I hope to see it grow further,” he added. In response to a question about future development of China’s economy and its contribution to the global economic recovery, he highlighted that China had sustained a double-digit growth for many years, adding, “So, it is natural that when the economy stabilizes it plateaus, then you have growth of this level.” Shahid Khaqan Abbasi opined that the western media’s opinion is probably biased by the views of the region and the relationship with China. “So, on a comparative basis, if you just look at the numbers, I think within a decade, China probably will be the largest economy in the world,” he added. On China’s achievements in rural revitalization in recent years, he said that rural was very critical because there had been a very heavy disparity in the growth of urban areas and rural areas. In fact, the growth of the urban areas has been at the cost of the rural areas. “Especially when you look at the two major issues coming up, which are the environment and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It is very critical that we use both the resources for both these in a balanced manner so that there is in the remediation of the rural economy,” he added. APP/asg