Senior CPC official visits Pakistan

Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, led a CPC delegation to visit Pakistan from June 20 to June 22.

During the visit, Liu met with President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, as well as with people of social sectors in Pakistan.

The CPC senior official also attended the China-Pakistan Political Parties Forum and the third meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Political Parties Joint Consultation Mechanism and delivered a speech.

Both sides agreed that China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and the two countries' friendship is unbreakable.

The two sides agreed to implement the new important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen inter-party exchanges, deepen exchanges and mutual learning on governance experience, promote high-quality joint construction of the CPEC, and promote the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

Gaza's gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted by 86 percent year on year in the first three months of 2024 amid intensifying Israeli attacks, according to data released by Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on Thursday.

The PCBS statement shows that the GDP of Palestine in the first quarter of 2024 declined by 35 percent year on year, while that of the Gaza Strip sharply shrank by 86 percent due to ongoing Israeli attacks, indicating that the local economic system has collapsed.

The West Bank also saw a year-on-year contraction by 25 percent.

Palestine's GDP per capita was 491 U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2024, down 36 percent compared to the same period of last year, with that of the Gaza Strip decreased by 86 percent.