”The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is playing an important role in the development of Pakistan and the welfare of its people”, said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
”The entire nation, including me, is grateful to the Honorable President Xi Jinping and the Chinese leadership for helping Pakistan in every difficult phase”, he said.
”Thanks to Chinese cooperation and investment, Pakistan’s infrastructure, development of public transport and power crisis have been helped to a large extent”, he said adding that, ”The ongoing development projects with Chinese cooperation will not be allowed to be stalled any longer. The government is taking serious steps to increase cooperation and investment with Chinese companies. All necessary steps are being taken to protect engineers and workers of Chinese companies.”
According to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, ”Every coal power project which should have been completed long ago was deliberately stalled in Imran Niazi’s incompetent government. With its completion, it will be possible to supply 1320 MW of electricity from local coal to the public soon.”
The Prime Minister assigned the responsibility of Special Representative Zafaruddin Mehmood and Additional Secretary Nadeem Chaudhry to support the Chinese company Shanghai Electric in the early completion of the Thar Coal Project.
”Chinese companies ensured the completion of projects in Pakistan at lightning speed, which is commendable”, said Prime Minister.
Chinese delegation led by President of Shanghai Electric Liu Ping met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister for Electricity Khurram Dastgir Khan, Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Mussadik Malik, Special Assistants Zafaruddin Mahmood, Dr. Jahanzeb Khan and related senior officials participated in the meeting.
In the meeting, the Prime Minister was informed that the 1320 MW Thar Coal Power Project has been stalled for the past few years, but thanks to the support of the present government, not only is the work on it progressing rapidly, but it will be completed in the first quarter of 2023, 7000 local people were provided employment due to the project. The meeting was also informed that Shanghai Electric is keenly interested in further investment in generation, transmission and distribution in Pakistan, which was welcomed by the Prime Minister. The President of Shanghai Electric thanked the Prime Minister and his team for their support for the completion of the project.
