senior officials was jointly chaired by the Secretary Planning Shoaib Siddiqui and his Chinese counterpart. The SOM was attended by senior government officials, members of the joint working groups (JWG) on the LTP, energy, infrastructure, Gwadar, industrial cooperation and security from China and Pakistan, Secretary to the PM Fawad Hassan Fawad, federal secretaries of the line ministries, chairman Gwadar Development Authority, chairman Gwadar Port Authority and representatives of the provincial governments.
Welcoming the Chinese delegates, Shoaib Siddiqui stated that successful execution of the ongoing projects by now shows strong commitment and resolve of both China and Pakistan to execute every single project under the CPEC framework in letter and spirit. China and Pakistan are time tested and all weather friends since decades. The friendship was further transformed into iron brotherhood and economic partnership while both signed the CPEC framework which took this friendship to the new heights. He maintained that CPEC was a project of shared destiny and framework offering equal opportunities to the people of China and Pakistan.
The secretary planning maintained that Pakistani people as a nation and the government of Pakistan envisage great value to the commitment of Chinese leadership and the people for bringing huge investment of $46 billion which encouraged the global investors to take Pakistan as their investment destination. He said the government and the people of Pakistan are committed to completing this mega project through firm determination, coordinated efforts between the government functionaries and the line ministries.
The secretary planning said the pace of work and fast track execution of the projects was quite satisfactory since most of the projects underway were following the timelines agreed between the Chinese and Pakistani side. He hoped that keeping in view the progress of projects in the energy, infrastructure sectors and Gwadar, the completion of early harvest projects would be in time and on par with the international standards.