China lauds Pakistan’s desire to move towards CPEC’s next phase

KARACHI: China has commended the statement of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who recently expressed Pakistan’s desire to move towards the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Lin Jian, at the ministry’s regular press conference on Tuesday, was asked to comment on PM Sharif’s meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan and his interview with the Xinhua News Agency. In the interview, the PM had said that Pakistan is keen to move towards the next phase of the CPEC regime.

The spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China commended PM Sharif’s positive remarks.

He said that the CPEC is an important flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative. “A batch of early harvests of cooperation has been achieved in areas such as ports, TPT (Teradata Parallel Transporter) infrastructure, energy and industry.”

He recalled that last year, the two sides held a grand celebration event to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the CPEC. Leaders of the two countries reached new important common understandings on the high-quality development of the CPEC, he said.

“China stands ready to work with Pakistan to follow the guidance of the important common understandings reached by leaders of our two countries, build a growth corridor, a livelihood-enhancing corridor, an innovation corridor, a green corridor and an open corridor that continues to deepen cooperation in various areas, foster new growth projects and impetus, and build an upgraded CPEC to pass on greater benefits to the peoples of two countries,” he said.