Chinese president says trade war will prove disastrous with no winners
DAVOS: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s economy is strengthening day by day and the world’s confidence in the country's economy is increasing. The prime minister said this while talking to the media on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
The prime minister said the unemployment rate is getting lower in Pakistan and economic development is taking place at a better pace. He said the international media and news agencies have been presenting positive things regarding Pakistan. He said foreign investment has been on the rise in the country and economic factors, such as GDP and revenue collection in Pakistan, are a testimony to it.
The PM said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is on the right track and as said earlier, the project is becoming a game changer. He said development and prosperity are trickling down to every part of the country. He said no matter whether a person was in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, AJK or Gilgit Baltistan, he would benefit equally and the country would witness a development boom across its length and breadth.
Nawaz Sharif said he had come to the WEF to share the remarkable economic turnaround of Pakistan that only a few years back was on the verge of an economic collapse and the entire global financial community was acknowledging this positive change.
The prime minister said with the help of Allah Almighty, the economic indicators of the country were very positive and improving further with each passing day.
The prime minister said there was no concept of overnight development and road networks were the key to progress, prosperity and development. He regretted that the governments in the past ignored their vital duty of serving the masses selflessly while his government was proud to have gone to all lengths to serve the people of Pakistan. He said today there were new employment opportunities and the benefits of the growth were reaching far and wide.
Nawaz Sharif arrived in Davos on Monday to participate in the 47th World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, aimed at fostering greater social inclusion and human development.
Accompanied by Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, the prime minister was received at the Zurich International by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Mission in Geneva Tehmina Janjua and senior Swiss officials. Nawaz Sharif is here on the special invitation of WEF’s Executive Chairman Professor Klaus Schwab to pursue the economic agenda aimed at promoting the national economy.
Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping warned on Tuesday that a trade war will prove disastrous and no one will emerge as a winner in such a war.
Xi Jinping also warned against scapegoating globalisation for the world's ills or retreating behind protectionist walls.
In what amounted to a rewriting of the global economic order, led for decades by the United States, Xi used his debut speech at the WEF in Davos to insist that globalisation was irreversible despite a populist backlash in the West.
There is "no point in blaming economic globalisation for the world's problems", he said, adding that the process was not at the root of the Syrian refugee situation or the 2008 financial crisis.
Globalisation should be "more inclusive, more sustainable", he said, adding that currently existing global institutions are "inadequate" and should be more "representative".
Xi´s keynote address kicked off four days of networking and partying by the global elite in the Swiss ski resort, in a week that climaxes as Trump takes office after a campaign that blamed China and globalisation for the loss of millions of US factory jobs.
The Republican property tycoon's signal pledge is to "Make America Great Again" but Xi warned: "No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war."
Trump has repeatedly accused China of carrying out trade policies that have led to massive US job losses. He has threatened to slap tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese goods. But addressing a hall packed with government leaders, captains of industry, stars of entertainment and agenda-setting thinkers, Xi issued a rebuke to such thinking.
"Pursuing protectionism is just locking oneself in a dark room. While wind and rain may be kept outside, so are light and air," he said.
It is simply "not possible" to reverse the flow of global capital, technology, goods and people, Xi added, insisting China was committed to "opening up" and defending globalisation's gains for emerging economies.
