- ‘BRI will help partner countries find more opportunities to add value and carry out intermediate trade in a more time-efficient and cost-effective manner’
BEIJING: Planning, Development and Reform Minister Mukhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar has said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is now entering into its second phase with a special focus on trade and industrial cooperation as well as agricultural and socio-economic development.
“An increase in trade, investment and financial flows will bring peace and prosperity to the region while enhanced competition will reduce regional disparities and social inequality,” the minister stated while addressing a thematic session on ‘Connectivity of Policy of 2nd Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation’ in Beijing on Thursday.
Planning Secretary Zafar Hasan, CPEC Project Director Hassan Daud, along with dignitaries from various countries, attended the session.
Khusro Bakhtiar said as many as 22 projects are currently being executed under the corridor. The pace with which work is being carried out on the projects makes CPEC a central corridor of the Belt & Road Initiative.
The minister stated that President Xi Jingping’s BRI reflects his far-sighted economic vision, as the initiative would open gateways of cooperation among the countries along the route.
“Connectivity, at the heart of BRI, is primarily about linking the regions through economic belts so as to facilitate people-to-people interaction,” he remarked.
Bakhtiar maintained that Pakistan, under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, is actively engaged in the initiative and its flagship project, CPEC, is progressing in the right direction.
He said that BRI would ultimately change the way economic centres of partner countries are connected, as costs of productivity, transport and logistics, as well as competition and market opportunities, would be impacted.
He said that the partner countries would find more opportunities to add value and carry out intermediate trade in a more time-efficient and cost-effective manner.
The minister said through the Belt and Road forum, participating states should promote intergovernmental cooperation, build intergovernmental mechanisms based on shared interests, trust and consensus.
Some brilliant people in the world believe that CPEC and the entire Pakistan are vulnerable to S400 possessed by some of the countries. This makes us gloomy.