Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addresses a session on ‘Reviving the Silk Road — A dialogue with Asian Leaders’ at Boao Forum for Asia 2014. PHOTO: APP
BOAO:
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the revival of the Silk Road can prove an important instrument for the economic growth and prosperity of the region.
In his remarks at the session titled ‘Reviving the Silk Road - A dialogue with Asian Leaders’ at the Boao Forum for Asia 2014, the PM said Pakistan, as a country located at the southern edge of the New Silk Road, recognizes that political and economic dividends of this vision were unparalleled, both in scale and potential.
The premier praised China’s President Xi Jinping for his proposal of a ‘visionary’ concept of the New Silk Road last year, thereby renewing interest in the subject.
Sharif remarked that a revival of the Silk Road in today’s world of passports, visas and intricate tariff manuals, required ingenuity both in policy formulation and policy application. He mentioned that the policy could be based upon four elements including coordination to ensure mutually beneficial endeavours in peaceful and secure settings; introduction of cohesive laws and regulations regarding movement of humans and merchandize, taxation policies and tariff/non-tariff barriers; regional infrastructure for better connectivity by building better transport networks and convertibility of currencies and uniformity in financial and banking sectors.
“Our geography links China and the New Silk Road to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. This is the linear dimension of our relevance with the Silk Road,” he said. The PM said Pakistan is at the confluence of China, the Eurasian land-bridge and the Middle East which enables it to be the route to a three-pronged economic corridor between China, Central Asia and the Middle East.
He mentioned that Pakistan’s long coastline also makes the ports of Karachi and Gwadar as a strategic transit on the maritime Silk Road.
The premier said the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor is the southern extension of the New Silk Road and in the course of the last ten months, the two countries had achieved a broad consensus on planning various infrastructure and energy projects under the project of the Economic Corridor.
He added that Pakistan realized that partnership in the Silk Road would entail a robust infrastructure, regular energy supply and improved overall governance and for this reason, had positioned itself to fulfill these yardsticks.
He welcomed finances and expertise in Pakistan from China and from wider Asia, both in public and private sectors and assured full security to human and financial resources invested in Pakistan. Prime Minister Sharif stressed that to achieve an efficient Silk Road, there was a need to invest in peace and mutually benefiting diplomacy.
He said Pakistan believed that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), with its diverse membership and strong institutional framework, was well positioned to promote peace and security, in the wider neighbourhood. He said the SCO was playing an important role in settling disputes and managing conflicts which would help revive the Silk Road.
Yang Jiechi, State Councillor of China and Zhang Guobao, Chairman Advisory Board, National Energy Commission of China also spoke on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2014.
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Perhaps PM should try unlocking the Nation's internal roads first, including safety & security ! Then perhaps start dreaming big.
Our geography links China and the New Silk Road to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. . China's primary interest is in energy .. and the so call "silk road" has to come in the form of a "oil pipeline". Unfortunately pipelines require peace/stability and major capital ... something missing in Pakistan at the moment.