KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has sought Chinese investment in water infrastructure, smart governance, pharmaceutical manufacturing and climate-resilient agriculture during an official visit to China.
The chief minister, who departed for China on October 12 with a provincial delegation, held a series of meetings in Wuhan with company executives and officials, pitching Sindh as a manufacturing and export base for the region.
Water: the K-IV pipeline pitch
A central item on the agenda was Karachi’s water supply. Shah met officials of HBSZ, the Chinese firm involved in the Sukkur Barrage rehabilitation, and invited the company to take up construction of a 100-kilometre K-IV pipeline for Karachi.
The company expressed willingness to undertake the project, though officials did not announce a completion timeline. The chief minister directed that work on the project be initiated at the earliest.
The K-IV project is critical for Karachi, where water shortages remain chronic. Our earlier reporting noted that 96 kilometres of Karachi roads are to be dug up for the Rs72 billion K-IV scheme here, a measure of how disruptive and long-awaited the project is.
Smart governance with Huawei
Shah also visited Huawei’s urban-governance centre in Wuhan, where he proposed a pilot smart-city system for Karachi with an initial focus on flood warnings, emergency response and city operations.
The proposal would begin in one district before potentially expanding across the city. Shah said Sindh wanted a long-term partnership involving technology transfer, training and local expertise rather than a simple equipment purchase, and suggested study visits for provincial officials.
He separately visited Wuhan’s artificial intelligence computing centre, where discussions covered giving Sindh’s universities and researchers access to AI training and computing resources without major infrastructure investment of their own. Karachi Education City was discussed as a potential hub for research and emerging technologies.
The Sindh government plans to pursue the Huawei proposals through a memorandum of understanding expected to be taken up at the Sindh Investment and Trade Conference in Shanghai later this week.
Pharma manufacturing in special economic zones
In a meeting with the Humanwell Healthcare Group at its Wuhan headquarters, the chief minister invited the pharmaceutical company to establish manufacturing facilities in Sindh for medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients and other healthcare products.
Shah pointed to the province’s industrial infrastructure, skilled workforce and access to international markets through Karachi’s ports. He highlighted the special economic zones at Dhabeji, Bin Qasim and Khairpur, which offer fiscal incentives including tax exemptions and duty concessions, along with Port Qasim’s connectivity for imports and exports.
He encouraged the company to send a technical delegation to Karachi to examine opportunities for joint ventures, assuring facilitation through the Sindh Investment Department and assistance with regulators including the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.
Seeds, barrages and the wider visit
Agriculture also featured in the visit. Shah met Qingfa Hesheng Agriculture to discuss hybrid rice, maize, cotton and rapeseed seeds, with the company reporting yield gains of 20 to 30 per cent.
On the Sukkur Barrage rehabilitation, being carried out by a joint venture of China Road and Bridge Corporation and HBSZ, officials briefed the chief minister that 44 of the barrage’s 54 river gates and their operating systems had been replaced and made functional, with the remaining gates to be transported from China. The project, launched in February 2023 and financed by the World Bank alongside federal and provincial governments, is due for completion by June 30, 2027. Rehabilitation of the Guddu Barrage is also under way.
The visit continues with the investment conference in Shanghai, where leading Chinese state-owned companies are expected to participate. For Sindh, the test will be converting this week’s meetings into signed agreements and, eventually, ground broken on the projects pitched in Wuhan.
