BEIJING, April 22 -- Overseas news media, experts and scholars have been excited about Chinese President Xi Jinping's historically significant two-day visit to Pakistan.

Xi's visit to the South Asian country has been making headlines in major Pakistani newspapers.

"The two-day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan is important both in symbolism and in substance. The visit is a crucial one for the country," The News, the largest English newspaper in Pakistan, said in an article "Welcome China."

The article also said that the economic cooperation agreement signed on Monday marks "China taking on the role of Pakistan's most important ally from either west or east."

"There are no two opinions that the productivity of the visit is undoubtedly a real game-changer. Pakistan has not received such a welcome foreign guest in its history, whose visit will open the floodgates of massive development," The News reported.

Sharing the same opinion, The Nation said in an article that this visit would greatly enhance bilateral relations.

"Pakistan and China on Monday agreed to elevate their all-weather friendship to the level of strategic cooperation partnership, enriching the two countries' commitment to shared destiny, to ensure the perpetual continuity in friendship from generation to generation," The Nation reported.

Commenting on the high-profile China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan's Daily Times reported that the two countries launched a plan on Monday for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan, which "would eclipse U.S. spending in Pakistan over the last decade or so."

Also praising the importance of the CPEC, the Dawn News believed that it would ease Pakistan's energy shortages and make a "substantial difference in the long term with both generation and transmission covered," adding that Chinese money is "timely and useful" for cash-strapped Pakistan.

The Express Tribune quoted Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan, as saying that Xi's visit had given a new dimension to bilateral relations and would prove a "game-changer for Pakistan's economics."

"The visit is a historic event for the people of Pakistan. The day will always be remembered in the country's history," the Express Tribune quoted Sharif as saying.

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, chairperson of Unnayan Onneshan, an independent multidisciplinary think-tank in Bangladesh, said that China's economic engagement in South Asia has grown at a faster pace in recent years.

Titumir said China could play a pivotal role in turning the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) forum into a growth quadrangle, yielding a faster economic growth process by increasing use of the region's untapped resources.

"Many opine that China's proposal of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road will help for resolving disagreements among regional countries, properly handling contradictions and dissolving the risks," the expert said.

Madan Regmi, chairman of the China Study Center in Nepal, said that Xi's visit reflected China's belief that "until and unless there is economic development, peace and stability is not possible in South Asia."

Shreedhar Gautam, general secretary of the Nepal Council of World Affairs, said that, in a global context, one of the important messages of Xi's visit to Pakistan is that "China does not want to exploit its economically poor and politically unstable neighbor for its vested interest, rather it wants prosperity of its neighbors."

China wants to see the "economic upliftment" of Pakistan as the country is China's fully trusted friend, Gautam said, adding that China has "special respect and care for its best friend and neighbor."