PM pushing CPEC ahead with new ‘Pakistan speed’: China

Chinese official sees ‘a lot of progress being made on CPEC’

BEIJING:

China on Wednesday highly appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for pushing ahead the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with new ‘Pakistan speed’ and acknowledged his untiring efforts for advancing practical cooperation between the two countries.

“We highly appreciate the prime minister’s statements. He (Shehbaz Sharif) has done so much for practical cooperation between the two countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular briefing in response to a question raised by APP.

Shehbaz, in a recent meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong, underlined his commitment to unlock the full economic and connectivity potential of CPEC through expedited and high-quality development of CPEC projects.

The spokesperson remarked that Prime Minister Shehbaz valued Pakistan’s relations with China, adding, “Shehbaz Sharif has many times reaffirmed that Pakistan will push ahead the building of CPEC with new Pakistan speed.”

She said that after he took office, the incumbent premier had visited Gwadar port twice and hosted a seminar between Pakistani and Chinese companies and had done so much for practical cooperation.

“So, with the guidance of the leaders of both countries and with our concerted efforts, we are seeing a lot of progress being made on CPEC,” she added.

“We are ready to further implement the understandings between the leaders of our two countries and building on what we have achieved and current projects,” Hua said.

She went on to say that the two countries would further focus on industrial development, people’s livelihoods, agriculture, science and technology and information technology, etc. to make CPEC into a demonstration project for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

“This will go a long way for China-Pakistan relations and the China-Pakistan community with a shared future and also the well-being of the two countries and the people around the region,” she added.

During the meeting held at PM House last week, the prime minister had emphasised the importance of key projects like Main Line One (ML-1) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in Pakistan’s development plans and expressed his desire to move towards the finalisation of these projects in the upcoming 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JPC).