Xi chosen as Statesman of the Year in Pakistan

The front page of Pakistan Observer's 100-page special report on President Xi Jinping.

President Xi Jinping has been hailed as the Statesman of the Year 2015 by an Islamabad-based English newspaper, highlighting his contributions to global peace and development.

Pakistan Observer published a 100-page special report on Feb 18 after a one and a half month open-ended survey in the South Asian country. About 84.3 percent of the respondents declared Xi as the "Role Model Statesman of the Year 2015".

The report provides an all-round introduction to Xi with plenty of photos, depicting his talents in governing the world's second-largest economy, his contributions to China's foreign policy, as well as his personal life.

Pakistan Observer, founded in 1988, is one of the most widely read English-language newspapers in the country.

"President Xi Jinping is a great leader with a vision and fresh ideas," the advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said at the launching ceremony for the special report on Feb 18.

"Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC) will prove a milestone in the growing unique friendly relations between the two countries," he added.

During Xi's historic state visit to Pakistan in April, the bilateral relationship was lifted to the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and opened the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

The CPEC projects will cover the fields of energy, transportation and the infrastructure developments in Pakistan.

The special report "highlighted the fact that China had attained a great position among the countries both in East and the West", according to former Pakistan ambassador to China M Akram Zaki.

Former ambassador to China Khalid Mahmood said that Xi enjoys great stature that cannot be attributed to anyone else in the world, and Xi's emphatic foreign policy has won China prestige on the international arena.

Sun Weidong, Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, welcomed the initiative of Pakistan Observer to publish the special report.