‘CPEC as vital as country’s atomic programme’

Ahsan Iqbal says the project will prove beneficial for all four provinces

LAHORE: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is as important as Pakistan’s atomic programme so we must not politicise the matter just like we avoid politicising the atomic plan.

This was said by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Prof Ahsan Iqbal on Monday. He was delivering a lecture on ‘CPEC, its Opportunities, Issues and Priorities’ at Punjab University City Campus.



While addressing the ceremony, Prof Ahsan Iqbal said CPEC was aimed at making economy of the country invincible but some elements were politicising the mega project unnecessarily. He said all the provincial chief ministers had supported CPEC and all provinces would benefit from it.

Long-term project

The minister said South Asia, China and Central Asia were the engines of growth and Pakistan was located in the centre. He said the duration of CPEC project was from 2014 to 2030 which would be completed in phases.



He said the short term projects would be completed by 2020, mid-term programmes by 2025 and long term schemes would be completed by 2030.

He maintained, “We will turn Gwadar into a model port city like Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.”

He added an airport, technical university, hospitals etc would be built in Gwadar. He said energy projects would also be set up in the port city.

Ahsan pointed out after completion of energy projects, surplus energy would be produced which would help in provision of electricity at low cost. He said, “We have also enhanced portfolio of energy production and will benefit from coal reservoirs of Pakistan and produce electricity at low cost.”



Beneficial for all

He said the infrastructure of all the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan would improve. He pointed out, “It used to take two days to reach Gwadar from Quetta and now it is just an 8-hour journey.”

The federal minister said some elements in Baluchistan fear that development of infrastructure might improve socio-economic conditions of common people, which would empower people and give them liberty.

He said under the CPEC project, we would set up industrial zones in all the provinces and could not afford political instability in the country.  He said the government had allocated more funds for higher education sector. He said earlier Rs100 billion were allocated for the sector but the PML-N government had allocated Rs216 billion.

He said, “We must foil India’s conspiracy of imposing war by adopting a wise strategy because we want peaceful relations with our neighbours.”

Mega value scheme

While giving a detailed presentation on CPEC, Dr Hafiz Zafar Ahmed said Pakistan was spending 6.67% of its GDP on the project which indicated its importance. He said people of all the provinces would benefit from the project. He said China’s access to Gulf region would be reduced from 12,900 kilometres to 2,500 kilometres and the journey would be reduced from 45 days to 10 days approximately.

The speakers said CPEC was now a reality and collaborations between Pakistani and Chinese companies must be promoted. They said the volume of trade through CPEC was estimated at $2.5 trillion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2016.