China unveiled a major package on Monday that is expected to invigorate Pakistan's economy and advance Beijing's Silk Road initiatives.

 

The two countries signed 51 agreements and memorandums of understanding worth $46 billion, in two groups, including multibillion-dollar concessional loans provided by China, and focusing on areas including the southwestern Pakistani port of Gwadar, energy, transportation infrastructure and industry.

 

High on the agenda of Xi's two-day state visit include advancing the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southwest Pakistan's deepwater Gwadar Port with northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

 

The CPEC is located in where the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road meet.

 

"We need to form a '1+4' cooperation structure with the CPEC at the center and the Gwadar Port, transport infrastructure, energy and industrial cooperation being the four key areas to achieve a win-win result and common development," Xi said during the talks.

 

The two countries should make steady progress in developing the Gwadar Port and building the CPEC, thus bringing benefits to the people and setting an example for other major projects of interconnectivity in this region, he said.