SHANGHAI, Nov 23 (INP): Shanghai, known as commercial capital of China wishes to become a major business partner of Pakistan through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Pakistan is our priority in South Asia region for developing business-to-business relationship, said a senior official of Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Fu Jihong at a news briefing. Pakistani businessmen were being invited to attend the forthcoming China’s first national import expo to enhance their interaction with business leaders from China and other countries. Shanghai is world’s first class science centers and technological innovation hubs, said Fu Jihong, he said adding that they were focusing on innovations in all sectors to achieve our economic targets. “We are looking forward for more cooperation with other countries particularly in Southeast and South Asia. The BRI has offered valuable opportunities of trade, investment and comprehensive cooperation. Pakistan could take benefit of it, by further developing mutually beneficial cooperative partnership, he added. Shanghai City has promised to build cooperation with more countries, particularly the friendly countries like Pakistan, he added. The expo to be held early next year will help to build a bonded exhibition center for imported goods from Belt and Road countries, and set up a comprehensive service platform to encourage trade and investment. In 2016, Shanghai worked out a new overall urban development plan, with the goal of transforming Shanghai into an outstanding global city characterized by commitments to fostering innovation, the humanities and the environment by 2040. Shanghai will take an active role in Belt and Road construction and gear its development towards the needs of the cities and markets along the Belt and Road. In addition, Shanghai will strengthen economic and trade cooperation, financial services, infrastructural construction, people-to-people exchanges and sister city cooperation. These initiatives would help to make Shanghai a city with outstanding services, a favorable environment and a larger capacity for supporting Belt and Road construction. For these countries, Shanghai is well positioned to help. As one of the cities with the most developed financial markets in the world, Shanghai registered a financial trade volume of RMB 1,300 trillion in 2016. In terms of financial opening-up, Shanghai aims to become a Belt and Road investment and financing center, as well as a global yuan financial service center. Shanghai is one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the national government located in central east coast of China with over 24 million population. It has become China’s most attractive city for tourists for the last 20 years with the Pudong district’s ultramodern skyline that include the Oriental Pear TV tower and the 632-meter Shanghai Tower, currently world’s second tallest building, as the main attraction. Dubbed the biggest city in China, Shanghai has drawn 902,071 tourists from 10 Southeast Asian countries. From January to August this year, Fu said the Shanghai’s export and import of goods with Southeast Asian countries reached RMB274.1 billion (nearly USD39 billion), 23 percent higher compared to the same period last year. “We pursued the opening up by strengthened our economic cooperation and people to people exchanges with other countries over the past years,” Fu said. In his report, CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping urged his comrades to uphold the thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era of China’s rapid growth and development. Xi’s call was centered on China’s two centenary goals – a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and a great modern socialist society by 2049. INP/J/SB/AJ