Speakers predict Suez Canal and Gwadar will emerge as mega seaports in the coming years
ISLAMABAD: Speakers at an international summit in Cairo on Monday stressed the need to create new partnerships in order to reap full benefits of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), launched by China in 2013.
The two-day ‘CPEC-BRI Cairo Dialogue and Trade Summit – Building Partnership for Trade Transformation’, organised by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI), was attended by ministers, senior government officials, major commercial entities, leading businessmen, investors, academicians, experts and policymakers from Pakistan and Egypt, according to an official who attended the moot.
Addressing the event on the opening day, SASSI President Dr Maria Sultan said Egypt is not only the gateway to Africa but is also set to become the gateway to emerging corridors of international trade.
“We are heading towards regional connectivity and building partnerships which will help our people benefit from this great economic transformation,” she said, adding that they have proposed a north-south corridor that is going to be build upon the frameworks already in place through CPEC and BRI.
Other speakers on the occasion maintained that the Indian Ocean has emerged as a centre for the regional trade, as around 90,000 vessels in the world’s commercial fleet transport 9.84 billion tonnes of cargo through the ocean beside 40 per cent of world’s oil supply that also passes through the same waters.
With 19.9 per cent of the global trade volume passing through the Indian Ocean, the total trade passing through the ocean is 70 per cent of the world trade in value, they said.
Speakers said with the emergence of China as a global economic superpower, trade through the Indian Ocean is set to rise significantly in the coming decades. They said that China is striving hard to operationalise the BRI which aims at seeking regional and global connectivity through land and sea.
Pakistan and Egypt are two important BRI members occupying key access points along the global maritime trade routes, they highlighted, adding that Suez Canal and Gwadar are expected to emerge as mega seaports with unprecedented trade volume passing through these in the coming years.
Given the fact that the trade through the Indian Ocean is likely to rise significantly in the near future, huge benefits could be achieved through mutual collaboration and a synergistic development of policy frameworks, they maintained.
The speakers said Egypt and Pakistan have enjoyed warm and cordial diplomatic relations for the past 70 years, adding that it is the need of the hour to cement these relations and turn the diplomatic partnership into economic and strategic partnerships to tap on the opportunities provided by CPEC and BRI.
Apart from regional connectivity, cooperation in the fields of security, counter-terrorism, hybrid security threats, migration and cyber security were also part of the agenda during the summit.
