From a powerful turning and a profound meaningful handshake, all the bystanders could read out that, the intention and ambition on China of the Islamic banker in front of was far more than just did one or two business here or met some old friends.
When talking about “China Intention”, people would usually think unconsciously of the expansion of the Western economic power in China. "China is a big market." Our ears were echoed with this kind of voices from foreigners, and what accompanied it was the existing formula in mind, “China and Western relations = politics bifurcation + economy integration”. And the other corresponding one seemed naturally to be, “China and the Eastern countries relations = politics friendly + economy disconnection”.
However, today the Pakistani banker Nasir Bukhari seemed to aim at refreshing the existing formula. “Bring China's capital, companies and technology into Pakistan with the most favorable conditions, to open up a new situation for bilateral relations and realize Pakistan’s economy taking off." I didn’t know whether this statement would sum up his “China Intention”. Perhaps, this time, the word “Intention” could make Chinese people not feel too much of the coldness of the coming crisis, but bring more the flavor of win-win game and provide a better leading space for China side.
"From the dawn of history, the two countries’ people had begun friendly communication." Former China Prime Minister Zhou Enlai ever had such a statement on the historical connection between China and Pakistan. In some online debating platforms on politics and military, net citizens usually affectionately called Pakistan “Ba Tie”, which meant” Pakistan Iron”. We might not find a second country in the world that Chinese people would use the world “Iron” to describe its relation with China. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Pakistan had always maintained China's sovereignty and core interests, and played an irreplaceable role in the large events in China’s entering into the international world, for example, became as the transit place of Nixon's first visit to China. For China, It’s indeed rare and lucky to have such a friend standing together in times of need, locating in the vital connecting place between western China and the Middle East, in such a complex geo-political environment. And for Pakistan, China has always been the most reliable "Big Brother”. In recent years, the news of China-Pakistan military cooperation has usually appeared in newspapers. However, in the business and commercial field, the cooperation is far behind the military level.
"Pakistan and China have such a friendly relationship, and China's economic development is so fast. However, why in the past two decades, there aren’t many Chinese businesspeople thinking of doing investment in Pakistan?" Nasir Bukhari asked. The person sitting opposite was a leader of a Chinese investment corporation.
Perhaps this just resulted from that we knew too little about our neighbor and the panic after seen the negative news. In the process of open up, we spent too much attention on the West, and had even ignored our most closely friend in Asia.
However, we still couldn’t say that changes were not taking place. Just in last week, KASB Group, whose leader was Nasir Bukhari, just signed a contract with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company, for future together building up an economic development zone at the place 100 km away from Lahore, the city called “Heart of Pakistan”. Tengzhong, rushing into public view in 2009 through planning to buy Hummer, was lead by Li Yan, who was well praised by people in the same industry for his low-key and powerful. The company has held a global strategic vision for a long time, and has been keen to develop international co-operations. This time they stared on the fertile land of Pakistan. “The cooperation with the KASB Group was in line with our international strategy. I visited and investigated Pakistan for several times, it was really a potential place.” Zhou Ronghong, Tengzhong Beijing Investment Company CEO said.
This action could just set the mind of those bystanders who had doubts on the security situation and investment environment in Pakistan at ease. In fact, before that, KASB Group and China Mobile had begun an in-depth cooperation in Pakistan.
But Pakistan’s potential had covered far more than one or two areas. Oil and gas resources, chemicals, electricity, water, logistics, agriculture ... walking in the streets in Pakistan, we could feel it like the late 1980s or early 1990s China, “a paper with too much space to be filled with”.
"Pakistan is rich in coal resources in its south. And the government has made favorable policies for foreign companies. I do recommend the Chinese companies who are interested in this field to visit and investigate there." Professor Tang Mengsheng, Director of Centre for Pakistan Studies of Peking University said, in responding to the question of a number of coal industry representatives in a meeting. Early in 1970s Prof. Tang had started working in Pakistan, and put lifetime energy into the study of there. The fluent Urdu he could speak, not only surprised the Chinese people, but also won the praise of Pakistani people every time.
At the same moment, Mr. Nasir also handed out his card. This time, the card was printed in Chinese. Did this subtle change pulled forward the prelude of the new China strategy of this Pakistani banker, who play an important role in his own country?
As a supporter of Centre for Pakistan Studies of Peking University, Mr. Nasir already couldn’t remember how many times had he met Professor Tang. However, for this ambitious businessman, perhaps the last three decades of contact with China was just seen by him as kind of foreshadowing and investment?
He always looked poised and foresighted, and his talks and behaves showed kind of convincing power, which seemed to tell a potential partner that, in Pakistan, “to cooperate with me” would be a kind of guarantee. “Chairman Nasir knew where to put the money could get the largest rewarding. We chose them as our partner, as we saw their power and potential.” CEO Zhou of Tengzhong Beijing Company said.
Perhaps, from the moment of participating Zhou Enlai's visit to Pakistan in the early year, Nasir Bukhari was doomed to have an indissoluble bond with China. “The friendship between china and Pakistan would prove to be taller that the Himalayas.” Mr. Nasir repeated this sentences that Zhou Enlai ever said. Indeed, today's China and Pakistan are facing so many differences in religion, social system, culture, level of development etc. But every time when challenge comes, the word “belief” always seems to make sense.
Outsiders may not imagine how much weight, responsibility and expectation the word “economy” takes in Pakistan---a Muslim country with 180 million populations and stays in a special position in international politics. Maybe one day in the years after, when we look back, we can still feel the impact of what a Pakistani business leader has done related to China, which is continuously meaningful, to a company and even a country.
And as Chinese, we may have more reasons to believe that, everything has done today about China, for this banker with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and sense of responsibility, is all just a beginning.