GUANGZHOU, China, Aug 25 (APP): Spokesman to the President Farhatullah Babar on Tuesday said that Chinese Foreign Minister has advocated Pakistan’s right to nuclear energy to overcome its power shortage and utilize it for peaceful purposes. In an interview with APP, he said during President Asif Ali Zardari’s meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi last night, the latter said the world should understand that Pakistan needs nuclear energy to overcome power crisis in Pakistan.

“We would appeal the world community to understand Pakistan’s requirements in this regard,” Babar quoted Jiechi as saying.

He said President visited China to study their model of development and during such tours it is not essential that he should meet Chinese top leadership.

“But still the President had an audience with their foreign minister,” he said.

He said the centerpiece of his visit had been signing of over six Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in education, fisheries, agriculture, dams and investment.

The most important of them all, Babar added, was construction of hydro power station at Bunji in Northern Areas on Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, which means that all the investment will be made by Chinese entrepreneurs.

Chairman Wapda says when completed, the dam estimated to cost between six to seven billion dollars, will have a capacity to generate 7,000 megawatts of electricity.

Babar said the President has invited Chinese companies to bid for construction of over a dozen small and medium-sized dams in all the four provinces of Pakistan. Out of these dams five will be in Balochistan, four in Sindh and two each in NWFP and Punjab.

He said another important MoU was in the field of investment between Pakistan’s Board of Investment and China Council for Promotion of International Trade.

He said the MoU in the field of agriculture between Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam and South China Agricultural University aims at developing hybrid agriculture seeds in Pakistan.

Farhatullah Babar said Guangdong is a model for economic prosperity and development as 25 percent of total Chinese exports and trade is from this province.

“President Zardari wants to emulate this model in Pakistan for its prosperity and progress,” he added.