CM seeks Chinese tech transfer

Guizho province to visit Lahore. "Punjab is ready and keen for foreign investment," she said, adding, "China is changing the direction of the world through a digital revolution. "The chief minister said the digital technology being developed in Guizhou could serve as a model for others.

"We want to turn our friendship into real benefits. We want to learn from China about industrialisation, digitalisation and rural development and how millions of people have been lifted out of poverty," she said. She said the relations between Pakistan and China could be taken from national to provincial and people-to-people level.

"We seek to work with the Guizhou team in the journey of development and seek China's support for people living below the poverty line," she added.

She said she was an enthusiastic follower of President Xi Jinping's philosophy of shared prosperity, human goals, security, stability and sovereignty of all nations., Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz appreciated the leadership and experience of He Zhongyou and his team in publicity, media regulation, cyberspace, administration and governance.

She said she was fortunate to have the honour of taking the Pakistan-China friendship forward. "We want to build relations with China on the foundations of investment, technology, industrial development, innovation, culture and shared human goals," she said.

The chief minister said there was a very strong foundation for relations between Punjab and Guizhou. She said Punjab had a population of 130 million and people from other federating units also came to the province in search of better livelihood opportunities.

"Guizhou has a population of 38.6 million, while Punjab can be compared to a large country in terms of population," she said. "For the first time, Punjab also has a comprehensive electric mobility infrastructure. Chinese-manufactured environment-friendly electric buses are serving the people of Punjab," she said.

The chief minister said a rapid improvement in air quality through electric buses had been witnessed in Punjab. "In the past, air pollution and smog persisted in Punjab for three months, but smog has not been seen for the past two years.

We learned from China's success in eliminating smog and continue to learn from its experience," she said. She said considerable work had been done in Punjab for environmental protection and efforts were also under way to increase forest cover.

CM Maryam Nawaz said Punjab and Guizhou had strong agricultural as well as manufacturing and services sectors. "We want to move beyond the traditional economic model with Guizhou towards higher productivity, value-added goods, technology and private-sector partnerships," she said.