While making a significant contribution to the economic and social development of Pakistan, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) up to now has brought an investment of $ 25.4 billion, added 5,200 MW of generation capacity, 886 kilometers of power transmission line, 510 km motorways and created 75,000 job opportunities in the country.
These were the remarks of the Chinese Ambassadorto PakistanNong Rong while addressing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s Industrial Cooperation B2B Investment Conference in Lahore via video link on Tuesday.
The ambassador said that the first phase of CPEC features infrastructure cooperation including power, energy, road and transportation, which is fully in line with the “profited requirement of economic and social development of Pakistan”.
The first phase formed the layout of economic cooperation, which highlighted power and energy, road and transportation, Gwadar Port and industry. A batch of landmark projects such as Orange line, Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, Karakoram Highway, Sahiwal Coal fired Power Plant, Matiari-Lahore HVDC projects, etc. are completed and brought into operation mostly.
Ambassador Nong Rong said the second phase of CPEC focuses on industrial, agriculture and social economic cooperation and stressesmore on B2B cooperation.
The Chinese Embassy encourages Pakistani and Chinese enterprisesandassociations to cooperate with BOI regarding the possibility of establishing a Pakistan-China business and investment forum. “Through the forum, both the Chinese and Pakistani business communities would have a formal cooperationand communication platform,” he said, adding that the platform will soon be through which both sides could share “resources, exchange viewpoints, and create more business opportunities”.
Mr. Nong Rong said that President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister ImranKhanduring a phone call had stressed the high-quality development of CPEC. Now both sides shall fully implement the consensus read by the leaders of two countries by “devoting ourselves to building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future by promoting the highest quality of development of CPEC”.
