Chinese envoy lauds round-the-clock opening of Torkham border

The Chinese ambassador in Pakistan Yao Jing Wednesday welcomed the 24/7 opening of Torkham border by Pakistani authorities and termed it a good initiative to increase business in the coming days. He stressed that China wants connectivity of the region through mutual agreed projects and non-confrontational strategies.
He pointed out that China is looking to complete Peshawar-Karachi motorway section sooner while Peshawar-Kabul motorway section is the next shot, adding embassy is mulling to develop cold storage, customs and hospital facilities at the Torkham.
He was addressing a two-day international conference, "CPEC, BRI and trans-regional integration" at Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, with a spectacular presence of Central Asian ambassadors with Iranian and Russian federation envoys who vowed to collaborate intellectually for garnering impact of Chinese global projects through-out the region.
The two-day conference involving inaugural session, envoy sessions, and four research paper presentations sessions was sponsored by Chinese Embassy Islamabad, CPEC Centre of Excellence Islamabad and assisted by Centre for Global and Strategic studies, Islamabad.
Speaking during the welcome address, Director Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar Prof Dr Shabbir Ahmad Khan called upon key stakeholders to participate fully in this millennium project of 'open regional integration' of regional countries without any restrictions and imposed set of goals.
He stressed that countries in today's world prosper due to openness, mutual learning and experience. He pledged that his centre will serve as a pivotal point to garner scholastic and intellectual input for projects of 21st century.
President, Centre of Global Strategic Studies Gen (retd) Syed Khalid Jafferi stressed that regional integration will take a longer time if the afghan security situation does not become stable and secure for connectivity routes. However, he cautioned that routes coming from Xinjiang can bypass it in the longer run.
Director CPEC Centre of Excellence, Islamabad Liaqat Ali Shah stressed that industrial and trade development is on the offing after completion of major energy and infrastructure projects under CPEC.
He promoted the idea that CPEC and BRI will boost economies of the region as regional business will have major lion share in the trade that is currently abysmally at 3 percent in the region, and could follow EU intra-regional trade of 61 percent.