GUANGZHOU, Dec 23: President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday his country and China enjoyed “total unanimity of views on all international affairs,” and stressed the need for strengthening their trade ties.

“We have total understanding on all regional (and) international issues. We have strategic cooperation. But one thing which needs to be further enhanced to really cement the bond between the two countries is economic collaboration, which, to a degree, is still wanting,” he said.

President Musharraf came to the economic powerhouse province of Guangdong on Sunday, the penultimate day of a five-day trip to China, after a stopover to visit the massive Three Gorges Dam project. He spent Saturday in the old Silk Road town of Xi’an.

The president met Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and other senior leaders in Beijing, reinforcing close ties as tensions mounted with India.

While the conflict with India and uncertainty as the war in Afghanistan winds down have grabbed the spotlight, President Musharraf has stressed the importance of enhancing economic ties in his trip.

“The total trade between Pakistan and China is not even $1 billion, which really is regrettable in the context of trade between two very close partners and very close countries,” he said in talks with the governor of the southern province on Sunday.

By comparison, trade between China and Japan, one of its biggest trading partners, hit $80 billion last year.

Pakistan’s economy has been hit hard after the Sept 11 attacks, and boosting trade relations with China was important to the country’s economic revival, President Musharraf said.

A group of about 50 business leaders accompanied the president to China, and the Pakistan leader also brought his key economic ministers.

“We have encouraged our business entrepreneurs. Instead of looking to the West, they should be looking more to the East, specially toward China, collaborating more closely in all fields of our economy and commerce and trade,” President Musharraf said. In Beijing, he and Mr Jiang watched as officials signed seven deals on economic cooperation at government and private levels. —Reuters