ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) played a very important role in addressing crippling power outages that had been affecting industry and agriculture “at that point in time”.
Addressing the celebration of the 10th anniversary of CPEC here on Monday, the prime minister said power outages had a crippling impact on industry and agriculture and the country’s exports were adversely affected because the industry was unable to meet its orders, this was the time when the CPEC came to rescue Pakistan.
He said that projects worth $25 billion were undertaken and this was a game changer. He said that now we are entering the second phase of the CPEC, which is even more interesting and extremely helpful in promoting investment, progress and prosperity in Pakistan and in the region.
CPEC likely to get fresh impetus
“You have highlighted an important area in the second phase of the CPEC which is high quality of development, growth, SEZs, livelihood corridor, innovation corridor, openness and connectivity etc”, the premier added.
There is an effort to bypass Pakistan by some countries in this process of connectivity and I have no doubt that Pakistan and China together will fill in the gap in this corridor, which already has been established in North and South and will extend in many ways to include the entire region and also other parts of the world.
He said Gwadar a few years ago was a small village and today, it is a big city with huge activity. He said that CPEC will ensure Gwadar is one of the busiest ports.
The prime minister said that Pakistan was provided support by China through loans, roll over, safe deposits, and the government is thankful for the support at a difficult time. He said that Pakistan wants to move away from loans and borrowed money and wanted to show to the world that the people of Pakistan are brave to survive in a difficult time.
He said that Pakistan wanted to follow the Chinese growth and this is where Pakistan needs Chinese support and expertise as it is not a joke to pull millions of people out of poverty. He said that today, we agree to announce a joint working group to evaluate this (Chinese) growth model.
The prime minister said that this great journey of friendship was promoted by all the leaders including late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. This is a unique friendship and relation and people from all walks of life are committed to this great friendship.
He said that in April 2015, the CPEC agreement was signed by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi and then at lightning speed projects were undertaken and completed.
Shehbaz Sharif said that China and Pakistan have to jointly deal with the menace of terrorism as Pakistan has paid a huge price and almost 80,000 Pakistanis laid their life to fight the menace of terrorism.
He said that Pakistan defeated it effectively years ago and it has been a great commitment and great manifestation of Pakistan’s will to fight this menace till it is wiped out not only from Pakistan but also in this region and in an extended way globally.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023