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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pakistan-China Economic Corridor to become future of region: Ahsan

Islamabad: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said one should not narrowly think about Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) project as it would not only serve Pakistan and China but would also become future of this region.He said China wanted to get road access to Gwadar at least on one

By our correspondents
April 02, 2015
Islamabad: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said one should not narrowly think about Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) project as it would not only serve Pakistan and China but would also become future of this region.
He said China wanted to get road access to Gwadar at least on one route of PCEC in next two years so they decided to use existing road infrastructure and added a fourth alignment that would better serve this purpose.
“The addition of fourth alignment in PCEC has nothing to do with any political agenda of the government because it was just a necessity and we did it for socio-economic benefit of the people of Pakistan and China,” he said.
The minister said the Chinese President in his upcoming visit to Pakistan would give a roadmap about how China would pump 50 billion dollar up to 2017 into host of projects that would ultimately generate billions of dollars besides creating numerous job opportunities.
He said, “The PCEC project is not a game-changer but a fate-changer for Pakistan and for the prosperity of three billion people of the region. The corridor will have special economic zones, a railways system, a model city, an airport and a free port at Gwadar.”Ahsan Iqbal said the corridor is spread over entire Pakistan from south to north having several projects on energy, infrastructure, health, education and clean drinking water.
“Karakorum Highway (KKH) is being extended to Hawelian with Chinese assistance and will be completed within three years linking Ratodero with Gwadar. This will be the shortest road connectivity of Gwadar with the rest of Pakistan and attract substantial investment,” he said.