Government Initiative - Imran Khan- Man of the Year, departs from china after successful visit.

• Author: Kazmi, S. Kamal Hayder

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

Prime Minister Imran Khan has been named Man of the Year by Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center, has successfully completed his 2-day official visit to China. The Chinese armed forces presented a guard of honour to PM Imran Khan on his departure from Beijing. Earlier in the day, the PM had met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and discussed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, regional situation, and matters of mutual interests. It is important to note here, Pakistan officials identified that the growth momentum of the Pakistani economy, at 5.5 percent in FY2018 (with an average growth rate of 4.7 percent for period FY 2014-2018), became unsustainable due to rising macroeconomic imbalances i.e. high and increasing fiscal and current account deficits.

The twin deficits always persisted in the Pakistani economy, however, in FY2018 trade deficit was historically high both in monetary value ($ 32 billion) and as a percent of GDP (10.1 percent), while the fiscal deficit reached 6.5 percent of GDP. On the other hand Chinese experts showed that during Q1 2019, China's real GDP grew by 6.4 percent year-on-year, which was the same as that in Q4 2018 but slightly lower than that for the whole of 2018 (6.6%), thus ending the last year's sustained fall in GDP growth. in China during Q1, the service industry grew by 7.0 percent yearly, down 0.4 percentage points from Q4 last year.

Secondary industry grew by 6.1 percent yearly, up 0.3 percentage points from Q4 last year; its contribution to GDP growth grew from 36.1 percent in 2018 to 36.9 percent. Primary industry grew by 2.7 percent yearly, down 0.8 percentage points from Q4 last year. During the meeting, Imran Khan had thanked the Chinese president and his government for its principled stand on the occupied Kashmir issue. He had briefed the Chinese president about Pakistan's present condition and said the country had come out of the tough economic situation and would never forget Beijing's financial cooperation in this regard. He also appreciated the Chinese support under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework. Xi, the Chinese president, had lauded Imran for speaking on China-Pakistan relations during the UN General...