Mustafa Hyder Sayed
Executive Director, Pakistan-China Institute
Mustafa Hyder Sayed is the Executive Director of the Pakistan-China Institute, a leading organization in Pakistan-China bilateral relations focusing on areas including diplomacy, the BRI, and energy. He is also the Executive Director of Action for Climate Change, promoting environmentally friendly decision-making. In 2024, he co-founded the Green Energy Network – Asia (GEN-A) in collaboration with the Griffith Asia Institute and the Institute of Essential Reforms & Services to accelerate the green energy transition in Asia.
Mr. Sayed also serves as Vice Chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) Youth Wing. ICAPP was launched in Manila, Philippines, in September 2000 to promote exchanges and cooperation among political parties with various ideologies in Asia and Oceania. He is significantly involved with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), having co-founded the Green CPEC Alliance in 2021 and serving as the inaugural advisor of the BRI Green and Low-Carbon Expert Network (GLEN) to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China since 2024. He was also an International Advisor to the BRI International Green Development Coalition of China.
On October 17, 2025, he signed an MoU on Green Development with BRIGC alongside China’s former Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment Zhao Yingmin, making PCI the first organization to sign such an MoU with BRIGC, which will serve as the platform for green cooperation between Pakistan and China and was witnessed by Pakistan’s Minister of State for Climate Change.
He has attended all three Belt and Road Forums held in 2017, 2019, and 2023, respectively, and delivered a speech at the High-Level Forum on Green Development themed “Green Silk Road for Harmony with Nature.” Moreover, he participated in Wilton Park’s Conference titled “China’s Belt and Road Initiative: supporting sustainable development through high-quality infrastructure” in March 2019, as well as the conference “BRI Investment in the Energy Sector: framing sustainable policy solutions for the post-COVID world” in September 2020.
He was a keynote speaker at COP28 in Dubai, discussing the green transition and the regenerative economy. He also delivered a TED Talk on Pakistan’s role in globalisation. He was recently invited to deliver a speech at the first Global South Modernization Forum held in Beijing. The forum was organized by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and hosted by the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, Zhejiang University, and Xiamen University. He has authored multiple publications regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in leading journals and think tanks such as IDS Bulletin, RAND Corporation, and the Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development.
Mr. Sayed received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. He was also selected by China for Peking University’s Dongfang Scholarship on Governance and previously attended a prestigious National Security Workshop at Pakistan’s National Defence University.
