All CPEC projects intact, being completed: Bakhtyar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Development and Reform Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar has vowed to take China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to new heights in coming days.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday he dispelled the impression that CPEC projects have hit a snag as all projects under the corridor are intact and streamlined. He said in energy sector projects of about 4,300 megawatt are under construction and of 2,500 megawatt are under planning.

The minister said that the concessional agreement of 2016 was taken due to which 19 Chinese companies are ready to invest in Gwadar. He said a project of 300 megawatt of electricity has been completed in Gwadar while grid connectivity is being ensured there to provide uninterrupted power supply. He said the prime minister inaugurated Gwadar airport in March this year and we have also finalised the Gwadar Master Plan with the Balochistan government.

Regarding energy requirement in Pakistan Khusro Bakhtyar said efforts are being made for affordable electricity to strengthen economy. He said, “We will negotiate with China on affordable electricity including the proposal of constructing Bunji Dam with a capacity of 7,000 megawatts of electricity.

Commenting on steel sector the minister said Pakistan’s current import bill in scrap and steel sector stands at two billion dollars and government’s entire focus is on enhancing domestic production to curtail the import bill in this sector.

He said Pakistan’s total steel production is about four million tons whereas its requirement is about nine million tons which will likely to increase as the economy grows. “We will seek China’s cooperation in enhancing capacity of PSM from existing one million to three million tons to meet future demand of the commodity.” He said this will reduce Pakistan’s import bill in the steel sector. On oil and gas sector Bakhtyar said we will negotiate with Chinese side to enhance capacity of Pakistan’s refineries to reduce our import bill upto 1.5 bill dollars in this field.