Pakistan to host third CPEC-Silk Road Forum next year: Mushahid Hussain

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed announced Tuesday that the next CPEC/Silk Road Forum, which has been held in the past two years in the city of Karamay in Xinjiang province of China, will have its 3rd international conference in Islamabad in August 2017.

Talking to the media on his return after attending the Silk Road Forum in Karamay where Pakistan had a representation of over 50 persons delegation Senator Mushahid said that the Silk Road Forum organised by the international think tank, Research and Development International (RDI), which is co-chaired from the Chinese side by prominent parliamentary leader, Dr Zhao Baiga and on the Pakistan side by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, organised the last 2 forums in cooperation with the central government of China and the provincial government of Xinjiang, unanimously decided to hold the 3rd forum in Pakistan because CPEC is the pilot and flagship project of the One Belt, One Road initiative of President Xi Jinping.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said that this time, the forum at Karamay which is a sister city of Gwadar, also had representatives from Iran and Kazakhstan who expressed strong interest in participating in CPEC. ‘The MOUs worth over $10 billion were signed in Karamay amongst institutions and companies of Pakistan, China, Iran and Kazakhstan,” he added.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said that unanimous decision by these countries was a vote of confidence in Pakistan and its future role as the flagship and the pilot project of the One Belt, One Road through the CPEC, which will drive economic development in Pakistan and the region and unite the federation of Pakistan by bringing prosperity and progress to less developed regions of Pakistan particularly Balochistan, KP and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Pakistani delegation that attended the Karamay Forum included apart from Senator Mushahid Hussain, Senator Salim Mandviwala, Senator Talha Mahmood plus forum finance minister, Shaukat Tarin, Dy. Governor of State Bank, Saeed Ahmad, Chairman, Gwadar Port Authority, Dostain Jamaldini, Chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, Dr Saeed Elahi and the Director General FWO, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Afzal.

Representatives of governments of Sindh and KP were also present in the conference.