The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as a flagship project to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has changed the infrastructure layout of Pakistan and laid a strong foundation for Pakistan’s future development, said Pakistan’s ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque.
President Xi Jinping told People’s Daily in an interview that during his 2015 visit to Pakistan, two nations signed more than 50 cooperation agreements and began a number of CPEC-related projects in the areas of energy, transportation infrastructure, and port building. He claimed that the power generation and distribution initiatives started, developed, and completed by Pakistan and China have significantly reduced Pakistan’s power shortage and improved Pakistan’s reputation for trade and investment. The CPEC will have directly produced 236,000 jobs by the end of 2022.
Terming Gwadar Port as the pearl of the CPEC, which is crucial to Pakistan’s economic transformation, he said that this year, many key projects, including New Gwadar International Airport, will make important progress. The new projects will accelerate the development of Gwadar Port and the Free Trade Area.
Ambassador Haque said that the second phase of the construction of the CPEC has been launched, which will strongly promote the cooperation between the two countries in industry, science and technology, agriculture and other fields.
The CPEC is of great significance to Pakistan’s economic development and social progress, which is the general consensus of all sectors in Pakistan, he added.
During Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif’s visit to China in November last year, he stressed that Pakistan is willing to work with China to continue to promote the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. The two countries also signed the China-Pakistan Industrial Cooperation Framework Agreement, which has injected new impetus into Pakistan’s industrialization, he said.
Ambassador Haque said that Pakistan fully supports China’s Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, because it is in line with our foreign policy goals of maintaining world peace and development, as well as the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and is conducive to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
Pakistan is one of the countries that took the lead in cooperating with China on the implementation of global development initiatives, focusing on cooperation in the fields of economic and social development, poverty alleviation, health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, sports, culture and human resources development.
“We believe that this will further strengthen the all-weather strategic partnership between Pakistan and China,” he added.
Pakistan welcomes the Global Security Initiative Concept Document released by China, supports the settlement of all outstanding disputes through dialogue, and is willing to resolve all outstanding disputes that hinder the development and progress of South Asia through dialogue, he added.
He said that many countries, including Pakistan, have experienced devastating floods, earthquakes and other disasters this year. The solidarity of the international community to provide help to the people of these countries is strong proof that human solidarity and cooperation can transcend narrow geopolitics.
As China’s good neighbour, good friend, good partner and brother, Pakistan will always stand with China to jointly promote world peace and development and jointly promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, he added.
