Chinese Consul General in Lahore Sun Yan has called for deeper cooperation with South Punjab in agriculture, industry, education and healthcare, saying the region's favourable natural endowments and significant market potential offer considerable scope for bilateral engagement. Mr Sun made the remarks during his recent three-day visit to Multan during which he met Additional Chief Secretary South Punjab Fuad Hashim Rabbani, received briefings from senior officials on agriculture, livestock, healthcare and education, visited agricultural institutions and held meetings with university officials, faculty and students.
During his meeting with Mr Rabbani, Mr Sun said China was willing to strengthen communication with the South Punjab Secretariat, implement the consensus reached by the leadership of the two countries and advance the "2.0 upgraded version" of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He called for expanded practical cooperation in agriculture, industry, education and health and urged thetwo sides to undertake more "small but beautiful" livelihood projects to ensure that bilateral cooperation produced tangible benefits for local communities.
Education featured prominently during the visit. Mr Sun attended a ceremony at the Romanza PC Hotel Multan for the distribution of school kits among deserving children from South Punjab. He said the initiative reflected China's priority attached to education and quoted Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as saying, "Education is a matter of life and death to our nation." Mr Sun said the donation was a concrete measure to implement the consensus of the two countries' leadership and promote "small but beautiful" livelihood projects.
He expressed the hope that the school supplies would help children pursue their studies with confidence and realise their aspirations. He said the initiative was also consistent with the people centred approach under President Xi Jinping's Global Initiatives. Referring to President Xi's meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in May, Mr Sun said the Chinese president had stressed advancing the action plan for building a China-Pakistan community with a shared future, coordinating major projects with livelihood initiatives and deepening cooperation, including talent cultivation.
He also referred to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's visit to China last month and her emphasis on strengthening people-to-people ties between Punjab and China. Mr Sun cited vocational skills training, language laboratories and medical equipment provided to healthcare facilities in Punjab as examples of cooperation aimed at improving people's daily lives. He said extending the benefits of cooperation from major cities to less developed villages and towns could help narrow the North-South gap.
At Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Mr Sun attended a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of Pakistan-China diplomatic relations and stressed the importance of agricultural cooperation and talent cultivation as CPEC entered a new phase of high quality development. He urged students to deepen their expertise in agriculture and learn about Chinese culture, saying young people could become inheritors of Pakistan-China friendship and builders of CPEC.
Mr Sun also visited the Agriculture Department of South Punjab, the Mango Research Institute and the Model Agriculture Mall, where he exchanged views with agricultural officials and experts on deepening cooperation. The discussions focused on the region's agricultural potential and possibilities for stronger links between Pakistani and Chinese institutions, researchers and experts. At the Multan University of Science & Technology, the Chinese envoy met Chairman Dr Muhammad Arshad and faculty members and exchanged views on higher education and institutional cooperation.
The engagements brought government officials, agricultural experts, researchers and academics into discussions on sectors including agriculture, livestock, healthcare, education, skills development and CPEC. Mr Sun repeatedly linked the regional engagements to the 75th anniversary of Pakistan-China diplomatic relations, describing the bilateral relationship as an "ironclad, all-weather friendship". He said agricultural cooperation and talent cultivation had assumed greater importance as CPEC moved into a new phase, while stressing that strategic cooperation should be complemented by projects that directly improve people's lives.
The consul general also linked the school-kit initiative to President Xi's vision of a community with a shared future for humanity and the Global Governance Initiative, saying practical, people centred projects could give tangible meaning to those broader principles. "Every small act we have done here today is a vivid footnote to the greater story of China-Pakistan friendship," he said. Mr Sun urged the two sides to continue working together to extend education, healthcare and skills training to more families and ensure that the benefits of cooperation reached communities beyond major urban centres.
His Multan visit highlighted agriculture, education, human resource development and grassroots livelihood initiatives as important areas for expanding China-South Punjab cooperation as Pakistan and China enter the next phase of their 75-year diplomatic relationship.