Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Addressing the 10th Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC on Thursday, the planning minister said the government considers the project critical for future growth and development of the country.
He said all the federal and provincial governments as well as political parties are supportive of and standing behind the CPEC project. He expressed the confidence that they will realise the vision of their two leaders and meet the expectations of their nations by working together.
Asad said that despite many challenges, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was progressing successfully as many projects under the corridor have been completed in accordance with their set deadlines. The development of CPEC projects continued despite the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the whole world, he added.
“The CPEC cooperation successfully stood the test of time during the pandemic and work on all CPEC projects continued mainly due to the resolute commitment of the top leadership of both the countries,” he said.
The planning minister pointed out that the first phase of the CPEC has already provided dividends in the shape of filling in voids in energy and communication infrastructure. He said the phase-II of the project is now successfully underway, which has a much broader scope of cooperation.
This second phase is focused on accelerated industrial cooperation, trade, agriculture and socio-economic development. “The industrial zones of Rashakai and Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Faisalabad were testimony on deepening of CPEC,” he maintained.
According to Umar there is also progress on the development and operationalisation of the Gwadar port and free zone that reflected the optimism of CPEC’s future, particularly in industrial cooperation. The minister said that CPEC’s south zone at Gwadar is almost complete and that Prime Minister Imran Khan recently inaugurated the north zone, which is approximately 37 times larger than the south zone.
“Pakistan welcomes investments from other countries into CPEC,” Asad Umar said. He added that learning from Chinese experiences and in line with PM Imran’s vision, the government had shifted focus towards developing “remote regions of Pakistan to alleviate poverty”.
The minister emphasised that the Pakistani government was also investing its own substantial resources for CPEC projects on the Western route, adding that many development projects were underway in Balochistan to make Gawadar an effective port and “more attractive for investment and trade”.
“Phase-II especially focused on the development of agriculture and livestock, which have tremendous potential,” the minister stated. “An agreement to this effect was signed last year to pave way for its [Phase-II] development”.
He said that Pakistan was in dire need of developing the agricultural sector to help farmers and low-income people earn, adding that its future focus was on science and technology. “Agriculture is what we need today and for the future; we need to develop science and technology infrastructure to usher in a new era,” he said.
Asad Umar said there has been progress on Ml-1 progress and hoped both the countries will soon enter into the implementation phase in order to upgrade the infrastructure of Pakistan Railways. He said it has been decided to establish a dedicated investor facilitation centre for Chinese companies to fully facilitate the Chinese investment in the country. “We have also brought about significant improvement in the visa regime for the Chinese workers and investors.”
As regards the security of the CPEC related projects, Asad Umar said that many countries in the world are unhappy and nervous by the successful development of the CPEC. He said Pakistan has designed an expanded security system which has been shared with the Chinese side to provide a secure working environment to those working on the corridor related projects.
“It is a matter of satisfaction that both of our countries have been able to deal with the pandemic in an effective manner,” he said. He lauded the Chinese government’s support, terming it ‘unprecedented’ at a time when all other vaccine-producing countries were prioritising their own citizens, China provided much-needed support to Pakistan to combat the virus.
