The Pakistan-China Center was officially inaugurated in a China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) demonstration zone in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, on Monday, as part of efforts to deepen Pakistan’s links with China and other SCO member countries in diverse fields of cooperation.
Moin ul Haque (L) and Liu Jianjun (R) inaugurate the Pakistan-China Center on January 18, 2021. (Photo: Chinanews)
Liu Jianjun, the Party Secretary of Jiaozhou District, Qingdao and Director General of the SCO demonstration zone, and Moin ul Haque, Ambassador of Pakistan, attended the inauguration ceremony.
Speaking at the event, Haque emphasized that the establishment of the Pakistan-China Center at the SCO demonstration zone marked a major step toward Pakistan’s closer integration with SCO member countries in multifaceted areas of cooperation including bilateral trade, investment, sports, people-to-people exchanges and two-way tourism.
The Ambassador expressed optimism that Pakistan and China were heralding the beginning of a new phase of cooperation between Pakistan and Qingdao in areas of common interests.
Functioning as a commercial liaison office of the Pakistani Embassy in China, the Pakistan-China Center is a cooperation platform that facilitates exchanges of capital, technology, and talent across the fields of business, high-tech industry, education, culture, and sports between China and Pakistan.
The SCO demonstration zone in Qingdao is the only one in China that serves economic and trade cooperation among SCO countries and countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative routes.
China proposed building the demonstration zone in June 2018 when the 18th SCO Summit took place in Qingdao. Construction on the zone started in September 2018 and was completed in August 2020.