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Realizing the Future Collectively

Pakistan, China likely to finalise long-term planning for CPEC in July


Source : Daily Times   Date : 22-05-2015   

Pakistan, China likely to finalise long-term planning for CPEC in July

BEIJING – Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof AhsanIqbal has said that the long-term planning of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is expected to be finalised by July this year, leading a first meeting of the working group on the industrial cooperation during the same time.

He was addressing an international academic symposium on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at the Peking University in Beijing. The two-day symposium is hosted by the Embassy of Pakistan and the Pakistan Cultural Studies Centres of the Peking University, Fudan University of Shangahi and the China West Normal University of the Sichuan.

Ahsan informed the participants that the land for the Free Zone at Gwadar had been transferred to the Chinese company for development as an industrial area. A large number of investors have shown interest in establishing units in the proposed industrial area, he said. “The ultimate objective [of CPEC] is peace, prosperity and well-being of the people, the region and the world,” he said.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a comprehensive package of cooperative initiatives and projects which covers key areas including connectivity, information network infrastructure, energy cooperation, industries and industrial parks, agricultural development and poverty alleviation, tourism, financial cooperation as well as livelihood improvement including municipal infrastructure, education, public health and people-to-people communication.

The minister said that the economic activity along the corridor would flourish and more industrial activity would be generated in industrial zones and estates through forward and backward linkages. Pakistan would be keen to use the opportunity to set up enterprises that become part of the global value chain of products traded internationally, he said. Both Pakistan and China were committed that fruits of development of the corridor should benefit all areas consistent with scientific planning parameters, he said.

Ahsan said that the corridor would be connected with the trade facilitation corridors, dedicated freight corridors, energy corridors, trade logistics corridor, telecommunications corridor and other corridors of the like. Amongst others, participants include former ambassador Masood Khan, Prof RifaatHussain, Prof Hassan AskariRizvi, Prof MoonisAhmar, Prof Li Yanson, Prof Tang Mengsheng, Prof Wang Linggui and number of Pakistani and Chinese senior government officials and scholars besides a number of students.

Addressing the symposium, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khalid described the CPEC as a catalyst of regional economic integration and a vital bridge at the confluence of the road and the belt, being located at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia. He cautioned that the CPEC should not be viewed through the prism of regional power dynamics, old style alliance formation or ‘zero-sum relationship’ between different countries.

“The spirit of CPEC is cooperation not confrontation, a win-win project for everyone in the region and beyond,” he said, adding that the economic corridor would provide alternate livelihood, alleviate poverty and would act as a bulwark against forces of terrorism and violent extremism. It would tap enormous natural and human resources, address acute energy shortfalls, modernize transport infrastructure, inject strong impulse for national economic development and help build a knowledge-based egalitarian society as envisaged by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah – the founding father of Pakistan.