Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of Hunan Province, met in Changsha with Ahsan Iqbal, federal minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives of Pakistan, and his entourage on the afternoon of September 24, 2025. The Pakistani guests came to Hunan Province to attend the 4th International Summit on BDS Applications.
Zhang Yingchun, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and executive vice governor of Hunan Province, and Qu Hai, secretary-general of the People's Government of Hunan Province, attended.
Governor Mao Weiming meets with Ahsan Iqbal, federal minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives of Pakistan.
Governor Mao welcomed the guests and briefed them on Hunan's economic and social development. He noted that in recent years, Hunan has thoroughly implemented the spirit of President Xi Jinping's important speeches and instructions on Hunan's work, earnestly carrying out the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and actively integrating into the "upgraded version 2.0" of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Both sides have maintained close and frequent people-to-people exchanges, advanced pragmatic economic and trade cooperation, and deepened collaboration in education and healthcare. Last year, the total import and export volume between the two sides reached 1.8 billion CNY, with 14 Hunan-based enterprises investing in Pakistan. In the first half of this year, Pakistanis made 2,373 tourist trips to Hunan, up 92.6% year on year. Nearly 1,300 Pakistani students are pursuing advanced studies at 19 universities in Hunan. Governor Mao expected both sides to jointly integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative; further deepen cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; broaden channels for economic and trade exchanges; strengthen agricultural collaboration; and, promote people-to-people exchanges, thereby making positive contributions to accelerating the building of an even closer China-Pakistan Community with a Shared Future in the New Era.
The meeting.
Ahsan Iqbal remarked that Hunan Province is the hometown of Chairman Mao Zedong, the founder of the all-weather friendship between Pakistan and China. The province boasts a solid industrial foundation and advanced agricultural technology, enjoying high complementarity with Pakistan. Pakistan will earnestly implement the important common understandings and outcomes reached by the two heads of state. Both sides will enhance cooperation in advanced manufacturing, agricultural modernization, mineral resource utilization, artificial intelligence, education and technology—particularly in the application of BeiDou—and contribute more to consolidating and developing the all-weather friendship between Pakistan and China.
Photos taken by Liu Shangwen.
This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Yu Jiangjiang
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn
