CPEC being extended to Afghanistan

BEIJING: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor -- the flagship project of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) -- is being extended to Afghanistan, a study report said on Sunday.

The BRI has injected “fresh vitality” to Asia’s economic cooperation and helped the continent reshape its international relations, said the Asian Competitiveness Annual Report 2018 released here on the sidelines of China’s Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference.

China in December had unveiled its plans to extend the USD 50 billion CPEC to Afghanistan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his meeting with his Pakistan and Afghan counterparts had offered to extend CPEC to Afghanistan. “China and Pakistan are willing to look at Afghanistan, on the basis of win-win, mutually beneficial principles, using an appropriate means to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan,” Wang had said.