ISLAMABAD    -   Prime Minister Muham­mad Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, held a compre­hensive telephone con­versation on Thursday

“The two leaders’ dis­cussion was charac­terized by warmth and cordiality, in keeping with the best traditions of the Pakistan-China all-weather strategic cooper­ative partnership,” an official communiqué issued by PM of­fice said. The prime minister and the Chinese premier ex­changed New Year greetings, noting that bilateral relations had grown to new heights in 2022, and agreeing to maintain the steady momentum of bilat­eral cooperation in 2023.

Recalling his visit to China in November 2022 and wide-rang­ing conversations with Chi­nese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li, the prime minister underscored Pakistan’s com­mitment to fostering closer re­lations with China, and reiterat­ed Pakistan’s unstinting support on China’s core interests. They also discussed regional issues of mutual interest.

The prime minister empha­sized Pakistan’s unswerving fo­cus on timely progress of Chi­na-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and assured his Chinese counterpart that Paki­stan would provide a complete­ly secure and conducive busi­ness environment for Chinese investors. Premier Li Keqiang assured the prime minister that China viewed Pakistan not only as a strategic friend but as a country whose stability and economic welfare was of ut­most importance to the region and to China. China would al­ways stand in solidarity with Pakistan, Premier Li added.

Noting the International Con­ference on Climate Resilient Pa­kistan being held in Geneva on 9th January, the prime minister briefed Premier Li on the lat­est progress in post-flood re­construction and rehabilitation in Pakistan and conveyed Pa­kistan’s profound gratitude for China’s prompt and generous support for the flood-affected people. Premier Li assured PM Shehbaz of China’s continued support for Pakistan’s recon­struction efforts and the suc­cess of the conference.

Both leaders agreed to main­tain close communication to fast-track the bilateral cooper­ation agenda for mutual benefit of the peoples of Pakistan and China in 2023 and beyond.

Moreover, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has assured the business community that the government would overcome the economic challenge with the help of the business community.

The prime minister was talking to a five-member del­egation of Pakistan Business Council (PBC) which called on him in Islamabad on Thursday.

Expressing confidence in the government’s economic pol­icies, the PBC delegation as­sured the prime minister that the business community stands with the government for com­plete recovery of the country’s economy.

Meeting on Energy: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while chairing a meeting to review the implementation of the mea­sures taken for saving energy in the country directed the imple­mentation of the measures in a given timeframe.

The meeting was told about the progress made on the im­plementation of the solarisation projects. In the initial phase, so­lar panels of 1000 megawatts would be installed on feder­al government buildings. In this connection, the process of bid­ding would be started next week.

It was further told that the process of policy-making for the production of solar panels at the local level in the country had entered the final phase.

Consultation with the indus­tries related to the manufac­turing of solar panels had been completed.

The participants were told that in order to increase the production of electric motorcy­cles, the local industry was tak­en into confidence to formulate a comprehensive policy.

It was suggested in the policy that all the industries would be converted by the end of the year to the production of electric mo­torcycles. It was also told that for conserving gas, all new gas geysers would come with coni­cal baffles and by the end of the current year, the installation of baffles on the present geysers would be ensured.

It was told that the production of high energy consuming fila­ment/ low quality old electric bulbs would not be allowed af­ter the sale of the present stock.

The industries which were manufacturing high ener­gy-consuming fans would also be transferred to the new tech­nology and a comprehensive plan would be laid down for re­placing the old fans.

PM holds meeting on IT: Prime Minister Shehbaz Shar­if has emphasized on increas­ing Information Technology ex­ports from $2.6 billion to $15 billion in the next three years.