Syed-Qaim-Ali-ShahKARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday held a meeting with seven-member Chinese delegation here at the CM House.Shah welcomed the Chinese delegation on behalf of the Sindh Government, Sindh Cabinet and people of the province.
He said that Pakistan and Peoples Republic of China have friendly and old relations which were strengthened during the visit of former Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
He added that the Prime Minister of China during his visit to Pakistan had expressed that his country wants to invest in Pakistan particularly in energy sector.
China is a very advanced country and has achieved remarkable development and progress in various sectors, and Pakistan intends to avail the facilities from those achievements, he said.
Chairman of state owned China Godian Group Ms Renaiquin, in her discussion informed that their group is engaged in Mining and Power sector based with coal power, solar energy, wind energy and also in petro-chemicals.
She said that their group was generating 88,000 MW of power in China and intends to invest in Thar coal and all other projects under infrastructure.
The Chinese group informed that they will prepare detailed proposal and the same will be sent to the Sindh Government for further negotiations.
Advisor to C.M. Sindh for Investments Zubair Motiwala said that Pakistan has always treated China as trust worthy and hoped that the Chinese Guodian Group will fully participate in development process of Thar coal and energy project.
He added that the project is commercially viable and the Chinese group can also utilise sources of solar energy and wind energy together with coal gasification for power generation.
Sindh Secretary for Thar Coal and Energy Department Aijaz Ali Khan in his detailed briefing informed that there is an estimated 860 billion tonnes of coal reserve in the world which includes bituminous and anthracite 405 billion tonnes, sub-bituminous 260 billion tonnes and lignite 195 billion tonnes.
He said that there is coal reserve of 186.560 billion tonnes in Sindh, 235 million tonnes in Punjab, 217 million tonnes in Balochistan, 90 million tonnes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 9- million tonnes is Azad Kashmir.
Aijaz Ali Khan also pointed to the socio-economic impact of load-shedding and said that Pakistan is facing acute energy shortages leading to socio-economic costs of load shedding estimated at $ 37 billion between 2007 and 2012 while loss of Rs 219 billion to industrial sector alone during 2008 in Pakistan.
He said that the vision for Thar coal is to develop it as a source of power generation for energy and economic security of the country and as a Hub of petro chemical industry while as per goal, at least 10,000 MW power will be generated by 2020.
The meeting was also attended by Advisor to C.M. for Investment Zubair Motiwala, Secretary to C.M. Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Investment Sindh M. Younis Dagha, Asad Ali Shah, and others.
