President Asif Ali Zardari’s short visit to historic St Petersburg

St Petersburg May 13, 2011: President Asif Ali Zardari’s short visit to historic St Petersburg Friday evening on the second leg of his Russian visit culminated in a decision to task Russia’s leading hydro power conglomerate prepare feasibility for building small 5-10 MW run of the flow hydro power plants throughout the length and breadth of Pakistan to serve as captive power source for local industrial complexes and domestic consumption. Russian business houses were invited to invest in infrastructure projects in Pakistan for which equity may be raised through the local stock exchanges. It was also decided in principle to declare St Petersburg and Karachi as sister cities to further boost trade and commerce.

 

Briefing newsmen Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that son after arrival in St Petersburg from Moscow the President went for a meeting with the governor of the region followed by meeting with business houses of St Petersburg.

 

Addressing the businessmen the President said that the future prosperity of the region lay in energy pipelines, railways and other connectivity project. “As political leader of my country I can open the doors for you and it is for the businessmen to take advantage for closer business relations between the two countries”, Farhatullah Babar quoted the President as saying.

 

President Zardari said this was the first official visit of the head of state of Pakistan in the past 37 years that had been undertaken in the belief that time had come for the two countries to forget the legacy of the Cold War era and forge new relations for the benefit of their peoples and indeed for the benefit of the people of the region.

 

There is no reason to remain mired in the distrust of the past, he said, and pleaded for forgetting the past, arranging for the present to face the future.

 

President Zardari said that he had very fruitful discussions with Russian President Medvedev and expressed the hope that mutual realization of the need for trade and business and turning a new leaf would usher in a new era in the relations between the two countries. He said that the Pakistan Steel Mill that was built with Russian expertise and assistance was waiting for renovation and enhancement of its capacity to 7 million tons and offered a great opportunity to the Russian entrepreneurs to avail it.

 

The President stayed in St Petersburg for less than three hours before leaving for Pakistan. He was seen off at the St Petersburg airport by Russian official and Pakistan’s Ambassador in Moscow Khalid Khan Khattak.

 

The President’s entourage included Dr Asim Hussain Advisor Petroleum, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar Minister for Defence, Minister of State for foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Secretary Commerce Zafar Mahmood, Secretary Production Aziz Ahmad Bilor and Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.