Pakistan\u2019s foreign reserves have plunged 42 percent since the start of the year and now stand at about $8 billion, or less than two months of import cover.<\/p>\n
Last month, Pakistan received a $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia, but officials say it is not enough and the country still plans to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a balance of payments crisis.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It would be Pakistan\u2019s 13th rescue package from the multilateral lender since the late 1980s.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People following Khan\u2019s talks with Li, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said his country would help.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the visit the two sides have made it clear in principle that the Chinese government will provide necessary support and assistance to Pakistan in tiding over the current economic difficulties,\u201d Kong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for specific measures to be taken, the relevant authorities of the two sides will have detailed discussions,\u201d he added, without giving details.<\/p>\n
SPONSORED<\/p>\n
Khan told Chinese President Xi Jinping the previous day that he had inherited \u201ca very difficult economic situation\u201d at home.<\/p>\n
Though China is Pakistan\u2019s closest ally, Khan\u2019s newly elected government has sought to re-think the two countries\u2019 signature project, the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which Beijing touts as the flagship infrastructure programme in its vast Belt and Road Initiative.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has looked to amend CPEC to put greater emphasis on projects that focus on social development, rather than purely on infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Following the meeting, Khan\u2019s office said in a news release that the two governments had signed a number of agreements and memoranda of understanding in the fields of agriculture, poverty reduction, forestry, law enforcement and socio-economic development.<\/p>\n
Pakistan is also due to speed up the launch of special economic zones in the country to spur \u201cindustrial development\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kong said there would be no change in the number of projects under CPEC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no change at all. If there were, it would only be to increase, not decrease\u201d the number of projects, he added.<\/p>\n
However the scope of the project would increase and will tilt in favour of people\u2019s livelihoods, Kong said, also without elaborating.<\/p>\n
After visiting Beijing, Khan is set to be a key note speaker at a major import fair in Shanghai, an event that China hopes will show the world the country welcomes foreign companies and their products.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s foreign reserves have plunged 42 percent since the start of the year and now stand at about $8 billion, or less than two months of import cover. Last month, Pakistan received a $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia, but officials say it is not enough and the country still plans to seek a bailout from the International Monetary… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2334,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions\/2334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}