NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's achievement in poverty alleviation is admirable and it has offered Pakistan "a great opportunity" to grow its own economy, said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday.
China has taken 700 million people out of poverty in several decades and "it's never been done in human history (before)," said Khan at a meeting hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City.
Assistance from China has offered a "great opportunity" for Pakistan's development, Khan told Richard Haass, president of CFR, during their conversation presided by the latter. "We have this opportunity now to get Chinese industry to relocate in Pakistan (and) bring in technology."
Khan said that casting off poverty for 100 million Pakistanis would be a major goal of him and that was what he had learned from China, noting "their (the Chinese) main concentration has been on trade, wealth creation, and lifting the standard of living of the people."
He also clarified the misinterpretation of China's investment in Pakistan through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and denied the so-called "tradeoffs" behind the economic cooperation.
"The Chinese have never, ever interfered in any of our foreign policy, in any of our domestic policy," Khan emphasized. "There have been no demands by China which restrict our sovereignty."
"China has given us a great opportunity to lift ourselves up from where we are right now," he said.
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