Pakistan keen on attending second Belt and Road forum

Chinese official says more than half of CPEC projects have been completed and put into operation

BEIJING: The second “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Forum will be held in Beijing late this month. Pakistan is enthusiastically looking forward to attending the forum and is actively doing all-round preparations, said Cheng Xizhong, visiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law and a former defense attache in South Asian countries

He said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will lead a delegation to attend the forum, personally expressing to the Chinese leaders Pakistan’s firm support for the “Belt and Road” initiative.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)is the flagship of “Belt and Road”. With the joint efforts of China and Pakistan over the past five years, more than half of the CPEC projects have been completed and put into operation, gradually producing good economic benefits.

Cheng said the 22 projects in the first phase of the development of CPEC have basically alleviated the power shortage and greatly improved the infrastructure in Pakistan. “Now, all walks of life in Pakistan have seen the achievements of the CPEC construction and are more confident about the future,” he remarked. On April 11, Prime Minister Imran chaired a high-level meeting before his upcoming visit to China, he said adding that the prime minister said that the second phase of the CPEC development will focus on agriculture, education, health, water, skill-based education, skill development projects.

“At the same time, industrial parks will be developed in the second phase. Therefore, concerned policies will be formulated to attract and encourage enterprises from China and other countries to increase their investment in the development of industrial parks in Pakistan.” At present, Pakistan has planned nine industrial parks along CPEC, of which three are already under construction.

This article originally appeared on the China Economic Net 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2019.

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