ISLAMABAD:Pakistan and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Islamabad on Tuesday relating to construction of 1200MW Chashma-5 nuclear power plant worth $3.48 billion. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif witnessed the signing of the agreement between Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and China’s National Nuclear Corporation. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was inked between Pakistan and China for a 1200 MW Chashma-5 (C-5) nuclear power project worth $3.48 billion.

President of China National Nuclear Corporation Overseas Ltd (CNOS) and Member Power, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Muhammad Saeed Ur Rehman signed the MoU. Speaking on the occasion, Shehbaz said the nuclear power project was a great step towards economic cooperation between the two countries.

The prime minister said the decision to start this project had been taken and main conditions were agreed during previous government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but the successive government put this project in the cold storage. He said keeping in view the spiraling international inflation, the project cost would have been much higher than that determined in 2017-18 but the Chinese government not only abstained from raising the cost according to the inflation but also gave a discount of around Rs30 billion.