Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on October 15 turned to Shanghai’s economy as a template for his province’s development, leading an investment drive in the Chinese financial hub that concluded with 34 memorandums of understanding and agreements, including 10 government-to-government and 24 business-to-business agreements across key sectors.
Speaking at the Sindh Investment Conference organised by the Sindh Investment Department and the Consulate General of Pakistan in Shanghai, the CM said Shanghai “has shown the world what vision, openness and hard work can achieve.” Shanghai and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, have been sister cities since 1984, he added.
The CM presented Sindh’s investment advantages to an audience of over 100 Chinese and Pakistani companies, citing its location and connectivity, economic base and young workforce, and natural resources. He also highlighted the track record of Chinese investors already operating in Sindh as evidence of the potential of the province.
“Shanghai Electric’s Thar Block-1 project, which includes a 1,320-megawatt power plant, has been in commercial operation since 2023 and supplies electricity to millions of homes using local coal. CMEC operates the Thar Block-2 mine, China Three Gorges Corporation runs wind farms at Jhimpir, and Pakistan-China joint venture Long March Tyres in Nooriabad exports to the United States and Brazil. BYD sold more than 10,000 vehicles within months of entering the market,” he listed, CEN reported.
Looking ahead, the agreements witnessed by the Chief Minister and Syed Ali Asad Gillani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, cover energy and minerals, including coal-to-chemicals and the wider Thar value chain; electric vehicles and automotive manufacturing; digital transformation, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing and smart cities; agriculture and food processing; and logistics, warehousing and trade, opening new channels for collaboration.
Separately, Murad Ali Shah offered China’s Shanghai Electric business group investment in energy, water and environmental technologies in a meeting.
In a meeting with high officials of the Chinese group, the CM highlighted investment opportunities in solar and wind energy sectors, “We will welcome the Chinese expertise and investment in clean energy projects,” chief minister said.
Sindh’s CM expressed special interest in desalination technology of Shanghai Electric during a briefing from the company over the modern water desalination projects. “A Shanghai Electric desalination plant running in China’s Hebei province purifying 75,000 tons of water daily,” the company’s officials briefed the chief minister.
“The Hebei project is also including the multi-effect distillation (MED) plant which cleans 25,000 tons of water daily,” the CM briefed. Murad Ali Shah said that the desalination projects could become effecting in Karachi and Sindh’s other coastal areas hit by water shortages.
He invited the business group to introduce modern desalination solutions in Sindh. “Clean energy, desalination, and modern technologies could assist in sustainable development,” he added.