More than two dozen Pakistani companies and a large number of Pakistani professionals are participating in the 13th China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), being held in Beijing from September 9 to 11.
Their participation highlights Pakistan’s growing engagement with China’s expanding services sector and creates new opportunities for business cooperation.
According to Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi, a major CIFTIS conference on September 11 will bring together more than 75 companies from Pakistan and China to explore partnerships, joint ventures, and new avenues of trade.
“The Pakistan Pavilion stands ready to facilitate these connections. Pakistan is open for business,” he said.
Amid a global shift toward digitalization, the fair offers a real-world testing ground for practical technology transfer. For Pakistani stakeholders navigating supply-chain restructuring, China’s deployment of artificial intelligence, green logistics, and advanced trade facilitation provides measurable, logic-driven pathways for upgrading South Asian industry, CEN reported.
For Pakistan’s Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA), which operates under the Ministry of Industries and Production, the primary imperative is equipping domestic export manufacturers with modern capabilities to compete in rigorous international markets.
“This is an exceptional platform to learn how we can enhance services for our industrialists,” said Daim Darab Siddiqui, Facilitator for Industrialists in the Investment Promotion Department of EPZA.
“CIFTIS promotes meaningful collaboration between the governments of Pakistan and China, offering direct exposure to the infrastructure our industries require,” she said.
Siddiqui underscored that the value of the fair lies in actionable industrial facilitation rather than abstract diplomacy.
“My focus is to guide our industrialists on future requirements, introducing them to technologies that allow them to compete globally. Understanding modern management and anticipating what enterprises need is essential for service providers,” she said.
“Artificial intelligence is no longer optional; it is critical across both industrial manufacturing and trade-related services,” Siddiqui noted, pointing to the practical necessity of AI-driven optimization in quality control, smart warehousing, and supply chain tracing for export zones.
She also commended the operational precision of CIFTIS itself.
“The cluster format, separating dedicated IT sections, specialized domestic zones, and international pavilions, demonstrates international-standard event management, offering valuable organizational takeaways for trade bodies back home,” she said.
Private sector representatives affirmed that China’s transition from labor-intensive assembly to high-tech leadership offers an empirical roadmap for Pakistan’s economic planning.
Salim Vali Muhammad, Chairman of the Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) and head of M/s. Texchem Corporation, said that Pakistan’s industrial sectors stand to gain substantially from Chinese expertise.
He characterized CIFTIS as a prime showcase of how modern trade in services, chemical logistics, and advanced material handling can drive traditional manufacturing sectors up the global value chain.
Adding historical context, Shahid Firoz, Vice Chairman of OBOR Development Co. (Pvt) Ltd., who has visited China regularly since 1978, framed the current bilateral cooperation through the lens of long-term economic development.
Firoz observed that China’s sustained policy focus has culminated in cutting-edge advancements across artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, and intelligent manufacturing.
He emphasized that for developing economies like Pakistan, establishing commercial bridges with China’s high-tech ecosystem through bilateral service frameworks is a grounded, rational strategy to accelerate domestic industrialization, reduce import dependencies, and achieve a sustainable trade balance.
