Pakistan, China agree to invite more nations to participate in CPEC

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have agreed to invite third parties to participate in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, and a process is under way to extend it to Afghanistan, the neighbouring country.

This was revealed by Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moinul Haque on Sunday, a week ahead of maiden visit of Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to China and initiation of the third BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] international conference to be held in Beijing.

In an interview, the envoy reminded that new corridors like China-Pakistan Digital Corridor, Green Corridor and Health Corridor have been launched to benefit on the emerging opportunities in the area of science and technology and Information Technology (IT) fields. He said that China was a global leader in terms of many technologies like artificial intelligence, e-commerce, green technologies.

For the reason, it has been identified as one of the most important areas for the second phase, “and we have established joint working groups for cooperation for the purpose”.

Responding to a question about the transportation projects, he said that Lahore Orange Line Train was one of the first early harvest projects under the CPEC framework. It was built in Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, a city of over 10 million people. Ambassador Moeen said the number of passengers on the Lahore Orange Line Train has touched 100 million.

The major focus was on the energy sector because at that time, Pakistan was facing acute shortages of energy and long hours of load-shedding, and added, the new projects had put in almost 8,000 megawatts of new energy into Pakistan’s system, helping the not only the needs of the common man, but also the industrial needs.

The ambassador said that Gwadar port project was going to serve many of the Central Asian countries, which are landlocked countries. “We have provided very easy quick and very shortest route to the Arabian Sea,” he added. The envoy expressed the confidence that the advantages which are occurring from CPEC will not only help Pakistan, but also the regional countries.

While highlighting bilateral relationship between the two countries, he said, “In Pakistan, we consider China is our best friend and in China, I know, Pakistanis are known as ‘Battie’, the iron brothers, an expression which is only reserved for Pakistan. It’s very heart warming.”

To another question, he said that besides promoting economic relationships, trade, investment industry, both our countries are focusing on cooperation in culture, education and tourism. There are now 25,000 plus Pakistani students in China and they are also serving as China-Pakistan friendship ambassadors.

Ambassador Moeen recalled that CPEC is a pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and it is a game changer and very important for socio-economic development of Pakistan.