Cultural exchanges to boost people-to-people relations between China, Pakistan

TO MEET FUTURE WORLD TOGETHER

China is the world's largest e-commerce market and in recent years, Chinese mobile payment giant Alipay has extended support to Pakistani companies to provide digital financial services in the country.

In Pakistan due to lack of financial activity in villages, banks usually do not extend their branches to these less-developed areas. In the past people had to travel to towns or cities to withdraw money and pay their bills, but now mobile transactions are available at retail shops from where people can easily send or withdraw money and pay their bills, since the Alipay had tied with local mobile payment company Easypaisa.

Talking about the impact of China's technological innovation on Pakistan, Kalsoom Sumara, assistant professor at Centre of Policy Studies in Comsats University Islamabad, said that China has brought a huge technological revolution in Pakistan over the last two decades through introducing smart phones.

"In early 2000 when only the rich could afford mobile phones in Pakistan, Chinese mobile phones entered Pakistani market, and were sold like hot cakes because of their affordable price, and even the poor strata of the society got access to mobile phones," Sumra told Xinhua.

"Increase in the supply and usage of mobile phones changed the telecommunication landscape of the country and a sharp decrease in prices of phone call and message was witnessed. Later Chinese mobile companies Huawei, Oppo, ZTE and Lenovo introduced smart phones to the country, which gradually led to the trend of mobile banking and e-commerce in Pakistan."

Chinese telecom company Zong provides one of the fastest internet and other telecommunication services in Pakistan. According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Zong had the highest number of 4G subscribers in Pakistan and it has recently tested 5G service in the country.

Hassan Daud, former project director of CPEC at the Ministry of Planning Development and Reform, told Xinhua that he has observed that the Chinese coming to the country bring with them their good values which they share with locals, and they also like to teach locals about new technologies and share their knowledge with them, which will help Pakistani youth a great deal in their professional career.

"Pakistani youth has a hope in CPEC, they believe that it will help strengthen their economy by industrialization, and the hope for a shared better tomorrow with China has intrigued them to know more about China and Chinese, and it gives people of my generation a hope that the friendship between future generations of Pakistan and China will be stronger and more cordial," Sabina Zakir, director of Communications and Outreach at Roots Millennium School, told Xinhua.