Pakistan has invited Chinese companies to invest in the country and jointly innovate, manufacture, and grow together, as both countries looked to deepen cooperation in pharmaceuticals and healthcare at the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Business-to-Business Investment Conference. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan, addressing the conference, said Pakistan envisioned a new era of cooperation with China in which both countries would jointly advance science, strengthen healthcare, and improve the lives of millions of people, framing the initiative as part of a broader effort to build partnerships capable of unlocking the country’s industrial and scientific potential rather than pursuing incremental, isolated agreements.
Paying tribute to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Special Assistant said Pakistan was fortunate to have leadership that consistently encouraged institutions to think bigger, move faster, and compete globally, adding that the prime minister had made clear that Pakistan could not achieve sustainable prosperity by following outdated models and instead needed to embrace innovation, strengthen its industrial base, and invest in science and technology. He said Pakistan was determined not merely to participate in the industries of the future but to help shape them, noting that the prime minister’s recent visit to China had opened a new chapter in Pakistan-China economic cooperation by creating fresh opportunities for investment, technology transfer, and industrial collaboration. He added that success in this partnership should ultimately be measured by the transformation delivered rather than the number of agreements signed.
Highlighting China’s own development trajectory, Haroon Akhtar described the country’s transformation as one of the defining development stories of modern times, driven by long-term planning and sustained innovation in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare, and said Pakistan valued China’s experience in these areas and looked forward to expanding cooperation in research and high-value manufacturing. He said the government was working to create an investment-friendly environment through the National Industrial Policy, National Tariff Policy, and the Regulatory Guillotine Initiative, measures intended to strengthen industrial competitiveness, simplify regulatory processes, and make Pakistan a more attractive destination for foreign investors. He further noted that healthcare had become one of the world’s most important drivers of innovation and economic resilience, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as evidence that domestic capacity to produce medicines, vaccines, and medical technologies was a strategic necessity, which had led Pakistan to place pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and vaccine manufacturing among its highest industrial priorities through initiatives such as the National Vaccine Policy.
Speaking later at a press conference alongside Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Mustafa Kamal, the Special Assistant said growing participation from Chinese investors and the signing of new investment agreements reflected increasing international confidence in Pakistan’s economy. More than 300 Chinese delegates and over 350 Pakistani businessmen took part in the forum, which he described as evidence of expanding bilateral economic engagement between the two countries. He noted that recent visits by the prime minister to Beijing and Hangzhou had resulted in agreements covering information technology, mobile phone manufacturing, and battery energy storage systems, including a cooperation agreement with Alibaba, and said around 700 to 800 memorandums of understanding and agreements with China were currently under process, with roughly 30 to 35 percent already moving into implementation over the past seven to eight months. Fresh agreements worth 500 million dollars were signed at the conference itself, with memorandums of understanding worth billions of dollars expected to follow, as Chinese companies show growing interest in establishing manufacturing facilities in Pakistan and positioning the country as a future regional manufacturing hub.
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