Allaying concerns: Wang counts benefits of project

Wang told reporters that the two sides have agreed on early operationalisation of energy and infrastructure projects

ISLAMABAD:

Terming the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor a ‘flagship cooperation project’, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday insisted that the venture would benefit all areas of Pakistan.

“Let me say that this economic corridor is targeted at the whole of Pakistan and that it will benefit the economic and social development in all areas of the country,” he told a joint news conference in Islamabad alongside Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s adviser Sartaj Aziz.

His statement came amid suspicion expressed by certain political parties that the government has deliberately changed the route of the corridor to benefit only certain parts of the country.

Wang also told reporters that the two sides have agreed on the early operationalisation of energy and infrastructure projects under the economic corridor and that progress on this important project will be seen soon this year.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2015.