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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Chinese enterprises have signed multiple memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for the establishment of a textile industrial park, supply of advanced emergency equipment and to modernize livestock sector in Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari’s office said on Friday, following the signing ceremony.

The first agreement was signed between Loyang Modern Biotechnologies and the Government of Sindh, which focuses on modernizing Pakistan’s livestock industry, according to the president’s office. The second MoU was signed between Beijing Asian Africa Longyue and ASM Services for the promotion and construction of a modern textile industrial park in Pakistan.

The third agreement, between Sichuan Chuanxiao Fire Trucks Manufacturing Company and ASM Services, set out a framework for cooperation in supply, distribution, sales and after-sale services of fire trucks and advanced emergency equipment for Pakistan. The signing of agreements was overseen by President Zardari during his visit to Urumqi in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The Pakistani president said the agreements would open new avenues of cooperation between Pakistan and China in sectors that directly support Pakistan’s economic growth and public welfare, according to a statement issued from his office.

“Modernizing the livestock industry will help improve food security and create job opportunities in rural areas, the textile park will boost industrial development and exports, while the partnership on fire trucks and emergency equipment will strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to respond to disasters and protect communities,” he was quoted as saying.

Beijing is Pakistan’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade topping $25 billion in recent years, while Chinese firms have also invested heavily in Pakistan’s power, transport, infrastructure, telecommunication and other projects.

The developments came during President Zardari’s ten-day visit to China, which began on Sept. 12. He has since had a number of engagements with Chinese political and business figures, aimed at further strengthening ties between the two countries.

Both sides this week signed multiple agreements to strengthen cooperation in agriculture, environmental protection and mass transit.

Zardari earlier met Chen Xiaojiang, the Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in Urumqi, wherein the president reaffirmed Pakistan-China friendship as the cornerstone of Islamabad’s foreign policy.

“Pakistan and China will increase cooperation in the fields of agriculture, industry, minerals and new technology,” he said.

QUETTA: Separate blasts in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province killed at least 11 people, officials said on Friday.

Militancy has been rising in mineral-rich Balochistan, which sits on the border with Afghanistan and Iran, and it has been met with a sweeping counter-terrorism crackdown.

A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into a convoy of paramilitary soldiers in Dasht, on Pakistan’s southwestern tip near Iran, on Thursday.

Two local government officials told AFP that three troops were among five people killed. The attack was claimed by separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army.

Another blast near an Afghan border crossing in the province killed six laborers on Thursday night, local government official Imtiaz Ali Baloch told AFP.

Separatists have been fighting a decade-long insurgency against the Pakistan military with the aim of what they say ending discrimination against the Baloch people.

Human rights groups say the crackdown has included rights abuses such as arbitrary detentions and arrests of local people.

Fifteen people were killed this month in a suicide bombing claimed by the Daesh (Islamic State) group at a political rally in the provincial capital Quetta.