Punjab board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) organized the 3rd session of Punjab Investment Working Group to discuss ‘CPEC: Achievements, challenges and way forward’ in collaboration with Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and industry (PCJCCI) here at PCJCCI Secretariat.
The session was chaired by Fazeel Asif, Chairman PBIT, Government of the Punjab, while leading stakeholders and experts on policy issues, industrial growth, legal framework and regulatory reforms from Pakistan and China also participated in the discussion. Other speakers included Asma Hamid, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, Professor Dr. Abdul Sattar Vice Chancellor PTUT, and Mustafa Syed, Executive Director, Pakistan China Institute, Ehsan Chaudhry, Senior Vice President PCJCCI.
Mr. Wang Zihai, President PCJCCI welcomed the participants from both sides and shared that opportunities of industrial cooperation under the second phase of CPEC require businesses from Punjab to engage with their Chinese counterparts to form joint ventures and to learn contemporary technologies. He said that it was most challenging for Pakistan and China to make CPEC a success and model for neighborly, regional and global collaboration.
Rizwan Qadeer, Additional Secretary ICI & SSD in his keynote address said that the immense opportunities available for both B2B (business to business) and G2B (government to business) collaborations in areas of industry, livestock, agriculture, health, education, labour force training, connectivity via rail/road and fiber-optic had a great transformative impact on the overall socio-economic growth of Pakistan, while there was also an opening for greater opportunities to Chinese businesses to reach to new markets both for supply of products and services.
Ms. Sunny Yang, CEO TCL shared ideas and educated the local and foreign audience on how CPEC, since its inception, had been transforming the overall relationship between China and Pakistan.
During the session, concerned government entities and private sector stakeholders exchanged their views on creating a strong enabling environment to attract industrial investments, both in the services and the manufacturing sectors from China and other countries under the inclusive vision of CPEC.
Ehsan Chaudhry, Senior Vice President PCJCCI, said that the CPEC had influenced different economic factors like leadership quality, the quality of infrastructure, revenue generation, job opportunities and technology gateway. It was expected that CPEC projects would add a rise of 2.5 percent in GDP of Pakistan and provide employment opportunity with almost 2.3 millions jobs as well.
