PR. No. 44 PRESS RELEASE               President leaves on six day China visit on Tuesday Entourage leaving for China tonight Islamabad July 04,2010 President Asif Ali Zardari will leave Tuesday on a six day official visit to China during which he will hold talks with the top Chinese leadership including President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and touch base with provincial political leaders and leaders of corporate sector.   Briefing journalists Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the forthcoming visit will be the fifth undertaken by the President since he became the President demonstrating the importance Pakistan attaches to further bolster strategic ties with China through enhanced people to people contacts.   Besides holding talks with the President and Prime Minister of China the President will also meet Chairman of the Chinese Peoples Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Jia Qinglin, receive the Chinese Ministers for Water Resources and Agriculture and visit Tsinghuan University to inaugurate an exhibition on Mohenjodaro Gandhara civilization, he said.   The Presidential entourage however will leave Islamabad tonight a day ahead of the Presidential visit.   Members of the entourage include Defence Minister ChaudhryAhmad Mukhtar, Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar, Minister of State for water Resources Kamal Majidullah, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Secretary General to President Salman Farooqui, Secretary Foreign Affairs Salman Bashir, Ambassador at large Khalil Ahmad Khan, Chairman WAPDA Shakil Durrani, Chairman NHA Chaudhry Altaf Ahmad, Additional Secretary Foreign Office Khalid Masood and Spokesperson.               During the six-day visit the President will also address the Pakistan-China Economic Cooperation Forum and hold discussion with corporate leaders of energy, construction, mining, petroleum, engineering, shipping, finance and banking sectors and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industries.   The President will visit the side by side pavilions of Pakistan and China at Shanghai Expo showcasing economic and industrial progress of the two countries- described by the President as a ‘demonstration of the soft power of China’, the spokesperson said. A separate meeting with corporate leaders of energy sector has also been lined up to further push Pakistan’s quest for alternate energy particularly wind and solar energy to meet its growing power demands.   To reach out to the Chinese people and step up peoples to peoples contacts the President will also have media interactions both in Beijing and Shanghai with about ten different print and electronic media outlets and also visit Mohenjodaro exhibition, Farhatullah Babar said. In the same context a number of business and corporate leaders including the Presidents of EXIM Bank, Peoples Bank of China, China Development Bank, China Northern Railways Corporation, China Three Gorges Corporation, Sinohydro, Sinopec and Politechnologies among others will also call on the President.   The President’s visit is aimed at boosting the multi dimensional ties with particular emphasis on reviewing progress in the scores of new developmental initiatives undertaken during the last two years as well as inviting Chinese entrepreneurs to bolster further their investment in Pakistan.   Farhatullah Babar said that the President is keen that the multifaceted strong Pakistan-China relations already supported by the top leadership of the two countries should also percolate down to the level of ordinary people in both the countries.   Just yesterday China demonstrated yet again strong support by categorical reiteration that it will go ahead with installation of two new nuclear reactors in Pakistan as the agreement ‘goes along well with the international non proliferation obligations of China and Pakistan’, the spokesperson said. The agreement was signed during President Zardari’s China visit last year and reiterated on the eve of President Zardari’s visit beginning Tuesday, he said.   President Zardari’s frequent visits to China is in line with the President’s announcement made during his first visit to China in October 2008 that he will undertake brief visits to China to boost the new initiatives that the government had decided to take, he said. During the last two years more than five dozen new initiatives have been undertaken and nearly forty MoUs signed, he said.  The new economic initiatives that have been launched recently include building hydro dams, transfer of hybrid technology, expanding banking operations, roads and communication networks, cooperation in agriculture focusing on optimum utilization of irrigation water and development of new high yielding varieties of wheat and cotton, the proposed Thar Coal project and dredging of Tarbela reservoir.   The President has also been regularly holding special meetings to review progress in all areas of Pak-China cooperation. The last such special meeting was held last week in the Presidency at which Pakistan’s Ambassador in Beijing Masood Khan gave a detailed presentation on the status of the Pak-China collaborative projects. He also pointed out areas requiring intervention to speed up the process at which the President issued directions to relevant Ministries for immediate action.   Ambassador Khan had pointed out at the special briefing that as a result of conscious efforts to further strengthen increased economic cooperation the two- way trade which used to be less than $ 2 billion in 2002 is now around $ 7 billion. HJe also informed the briefing meeting that there are about 120 Chinese enterprises working in Pakistan and that under the Five Year Program for trade and economic cooperation 62 projects have been identified, out of which 27 have been launched; 26 are being examined; and 12 are being reviewed.   A Pakistan-China Joint Investment Company (JIC) has been established and is acting as a conduit for investment. Chinese have invested in Pakistan in telecommunications, energy, infrastructure, heavy engineering, IT, mining, and defence production. In 2008, Chinese and Pakistani enterprises signed contracts worth $ 4 billion.   Farhatullah Babar said that the President was keen on starting up the Thar Coal Project and exploring alternate energy sources like wind and solar with the assistance of Chinese entrepreneurs.   The President has also called for providing special incentives to Chinese entrepreneurs to help set up a Telecom University, a telecom research and development centre and a plant to manufacture and assemble mobile handsets in the country.   President Zardari has been advocating providing access to China to markets in the Gulf countries through Pakistani ports as the ports of Shanghai and Hog Kong are too far away from at least half of mainland China.   The availability of low cost labour in Pakistan and the determination of Chinese  entrepreneurs to continue working on projects undeterred by acts of terrorism are positive elements to help develop Pakistan as regional hub for manufacturing. The President envisions that that these positive elements should be pressed into service to create a huge job market in Pakistan on the one hand and also enable China to produce low cost manufactures through special incentives and export it using Pakistani communication infrastructure on the other.   Farhatullah Babar said that the relations between the two countries were an important factor for peace and stability in the region and in the world, more so in view of the complexities of the regional and global situation, and the visit will help in further consolidation of these relations. PR. No. 45 PRESS RELEASE PRESIDENT SAYS JULY 5 IS A BLACK DAY IN NATIONAL CALENDAR Islamabad July 04,2010 President and Co-Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari has said that July 5 is one of the darkest days in the history of the country and will be remembered as the Black Day for spawning militancy, sectarianism, tyranny and oppression on the one hand and systematic dismantling of the Constitutional and legal edifice of the country on the other. The nation however can take some comfort in the fact that on July 5 this year the Constitution that had been disfigured by the dictator has been restored by the people of Pakistan through the Eighteenth Amendment. This triumph of the people and the Parliament is a stinging rejection of the dictator and dictatorship and a warning to all those who reject the will of the people expressed thorough their elected representatives, the President said. The President said that in his message on this day last year he had urged the people to, “vow to banish from the Constitution all undemocratic insertions made by the dictators from time to time”.             “I wish to congratulate the Parliament on this occasion for rising to the occasion and removing from the Constitution the vestiges of dictatorship”, he said.             The President said that dictators who strut along the stage are eventually punished by the people and the history even after they were dead and buried. They are punished when the pernicious structures of their personalized rule brought about by destroying the Constitution are torn apart by the people with a vengeance.             It is a lesson of history that all those possessing dictatorial mindset and a penchant for ridiculing the people and their representatives must always remember, the President said. Let there be no doubt or mistake that all power belongs to the people and the people alone.             On this day in 1977 a dictator unleashed a litany of horror and shame, forced his name in the Constitution and forced the nation to tread the path of destruction. Today while the nation has succeeded in banishing dictator’s name from the Constitution it has to join hands to banish his legacy of militancy, hatred and religious bigotry, he said.             On this day in 1977 the seeds of deadly Taliban and Al Qaeda were sown that plunged the world into chaos and has been haunting Pakistan for the past three decades. Let us resolve today to banish for ever the strategic partners of dictators namely the militants, extremists and religious zealots.             “On this day my thoughts also go to those martyrs of democracy who suffered and sacrificed during that black period of our national history. They suffered so that the future generations may live in peace, honor and in freedom”. PR. No. 46 PRESS RELEASE Islamabad July 04,2010 Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Federal Minister for Commerce, who is on an official visit to Holland, had met with Van Den Berg, Head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Holland and Mr. Wink, Senior Policy Advisor for International Trade in Amsterdam. They discussed affairs of mutual interests. The Federal Minister appreciated the efforts of Netherland government on the issue of GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) plus, and hoped that rest of the member countries would also be pursued for giving preferential treatment for Pakistan in EU markets. Makhdoom Amin Fahim told them that Pakistan has spent more than 40 billion dollars on the war against terror and preferential treatment in trade could help it a lot to revive the economy. Makhdoom Amin Fahim stressed on trade rather than aid.