Chinese president Xi Jinping Monday arrived in Pakistan on a two-day official trip to hammer out infrastructure investment agreements worth at least 46 billion dollars, officials said, according to dpa. President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, cabinet members and chiefs of the military branches received him in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. The Chinese leader will hold talks on the development of a China-Pakistan economic corridor to cost nearly 50 billion dollars. During his two-day trip, Xi was to meet military leaders as well as Hussain and Sharif, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. Minister for Development Ahsan Iqbal said the two sides would sign a deal to develop a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at a cost of 46 billion dollars. The corridor would link western China to the deep-sea port in Pakistan's south-western city of Gwadar, via new highways, railways and business development zones. "The corridor will be completed in phases, and initially projects costing up to 28 billion dollars will be started," he said. Spokeswoman Aslam said several agreements for electricity generation will also be signed. Bilateral trade is currently worth an annual 12 billion dollars, up from 2 billion dollars a decade ago, officials said.
