AHEAD of holding the upcoming Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) session scheduled next week, Pakistan and China on Monday held a joint working group (JWG) meeting as part of preparation for the upcoming JCC meeting.
The Pakistani side proposed the inclusion of “Water Resources Management and Climate Change” as a new area of cooperation under the framework of CPEC for efficient water resources management and development of climate resilient infrastructure.
The spirited and enthusiastic discussions between Pakistan and China on the need to reinvigorate different activities under the framework of CPEC augur well not just for the ultimate fate of the historic initiative but also for sustained socio-economic development of the country.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to visit China sometime in November when the two sides are expected to sign agreements to expedite work on the project and necessary preparations are being made to make the visit fruitful.
The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) is also scheduled to meet next week and deliberations of the joint working group would surely serve as positive input for the crucial session.
It is encouraging that the both sides expressed satisfaction on steady progress made on various projects and agreed to start deepening the work done and then execution of the second phase of CPEC, which is focused on agriculture and industrial cooperation, science and technology, information technology and socio-economic development.
According to Pakistan’s envoy to Beijing, the two countries have agreed to launch three more corridors on health, IT and agriculture and we hope the proposition of Pakistan to include water resource management and climate change as a new area of mutual collaboration would find favour with China, which has rich expertise in the field.
Proper exploitation of potential cooperation in these four areas can help resolve economic and financial woes of Pakistan but the outcome is dependent on the ability of our relevant ministries to propose workable and economically viable projects for the purpose.
Lacklustre approach adopted by the previous government relayed wrong signals to the other side and therefore, our interlocutors will have to work hard to undo the damage.
