Daily Times

The Business community on Thursday urged the government for learning from the Chinese model to cope with poverty and improve its economy as China had reportedly uplifted over 700 million poor people from poverty since its reform.

Besides opening up in the late 1970s, it had become the second-largest economy in the world in a short span of time, said Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While addressing as chief guest an event organized by prominent businessman Muhammad Saleem Mughal to celebrate Chinese New Year, Shakeel Munir said that Chinese annual imports were around $246 billion in December 2021, but Pakistan’s share in them was less than $3 billion, which was quite negligible.

He urged the Pakistan business community to fully capitalize on the revised FTA with China to promote exports to this huge market of over 1.4 billion people.

The ICCI President said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was leaving for China on a four-day visit, during which he would attend the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing besides holding bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

He said that the prime minister would also meet with prominent business leaders of China and hoped that this visit would contribute towards further strengthening the bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries. Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year 2022 or Spring Festival fell on February 1st, 2022, starting the year of the Tiger.

The date of Chinese New Year changes every year, but it always falls between January 21st and February 20th.

The date is decided by the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is based on cycles of the moon and sun and is generally 21–51 days behind the Gregorian (internationally used) calendar. In addition to China, many countries around the world issue zodiac stamps during the Spring Festival to express their blessings for the Chinese New Year.