Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif launches $3.5 billion Chinese-designed nuclear energy project

In this photo released by Press Information Department, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, center, unveils plaque during the groundbreaking ceremony of 5th Unit of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (Chashma-5) in Chashma, Mianwali, Pakistan, Friday, July 14, 2023. Sharif launched the construction of a 1,200-megawatt Chinese-designed nuclear energy project, which will be built at a cost of $3.5 billion as part of the government efforts to generate more clean energy in the Islamic nation. (Press Information Department via AP)

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday launched the construction of a 1,200-megawatt Chinese-designed nuclear energy project, which will be built at a cost of $3.5 billion as part of the government efforts to generate more clean energy in the Islamic nation.

The ceremony to mark the project's start comes less than a month after Pakistan signed an agreement with China's National Nuclear Corporation Overseas in the capital, Islamabad, to construct a Hualong One reactor -- a third-generation nuclear reactor and is considered safer because of the latest security features.

Pakistan and China are longtime allies. Pakistan's relations with Beijing are so close that its leadership calls China their "Iron Brother." China is also building roads, bridges, power plants, and railways to link its far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.

The nuclear power plant known as Chashma-5 will be constructed at a site along the left embankment of the fast-flowing Indus River in Mianwali, a district in the eastern Punjab province. The site is already home to four Chinese-supplied nuclear power plants that were built in recent decades.

Sharif, in his televised remarks at a gathering of Pakistani and Chinese officials in Mianwali, said the Chashma-5 nuclear energy project by itself was a "huge milestone, a huge success story, and a wonderful symbol of the cooperation between two great friends."

He said Pakistan will get clean, efficient and cheaper energy at the completion of the project.

Pakistan, which got its first nuclear power plant from Canada, currently generates only 8 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power plants and plans to increase that figure to 20 per cent by 2030.

In recent months, China gave $5 billion in loans to Pakistan to help the country unlock a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to tackle a serious economic crisis. The IMF approved a $3-billion bailout Wednesday, after keeping it on hold since December.

On Friday, Sharif said his country will never forget the Chinese financial assistance that was given to his country when it faced a risk of default. It was a "very valuable contribution at a very difficult time, and the nation will never forget it," he said.

Sharif, whose term as premier ends in August, said Pakistan is no longer at risk of a default.