Bilateral trade between China and Pakistan, and exports from Pakistan to China, are both running at record levels for the year to date, according to a Chinese official on Wednesday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing that China-Pakistan economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and has delivered tangible benefits to the people of both countries.

Wang added that China is willing to further deepen all-round cooperation with Pakistan to benefit people from both countries.

Observers noted that the strengthened cooperation in infrastructure, especially for the construction of energy and transportation projects in Pakistan, has achieved great outcomes in 2021, while more and more Chinese enterprises have been entering Pakistan with the efficient expansion of projects in the Gwadar port and local industrial parks built by Chinese companies.

The cooperation between China and Pakistan has great potential, shown by the increasing number of Chinese companies entering the market, Zhou Rong, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday, adding that more local factories have been structurally transformed and now contribute to exports from Pakistan.

The latest milestone in the relationship comes after China and Pakistan signed an agreement that would further open the Chinese market for Pakistani onion imports in late November, the first deal since the two neighbors embarked on the second development phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which focuses on cooperation across industrial and agricultural sectors.

Zhou noted that the agreement showed that China has been working on reducing the trade deficit between the two countries and getting more high-quality products from Pakistan. It also showed that Pakistan has been continuously improving the quality of its agricultural products to better meet increasing demand from the Chinese market, Zhou added. 

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said earlier that between January and September in 2021, agricultural trade totaled $860 million, with Pakistan's exports to China reaching $630 million, a two-fold increase year-over-year, while the exports of mangoes alone reached 37.4 tons, a jump of more than 10 times compared with the same period last year.

Zhou emphasized that China is still a potential market for more Pakistani products such as soccer and bath towels, which will be favored by Chinese consumers, but further efforts for marketing needed.