CHINA on Friday assured Pakistan that it would work hard to promote high-quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for the greater benefits of the people of both countries.
The assurance came from Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Nong Rong, who, in a tweet, welcomed PM Imran Khan’s commitment towards the CPEC, agreements under CPEC and timelines specified for the completion of relevant projects.
At a time when Pakistan is faced with a grave choice of reducing its development budget for the current financial year by a massive Rs. 200 billion, the renewed commitment of our great friend for continuation and completion of all projects under the framework of the CPEC is, indeed, a welcome development.
In fact, ever since the launching of the CPEC, China never wavered from its resolve to provide required financing and technical assistance for speedy completion of each and every project and as a result a number of projects especially those in the realm of energy are contributing significantly to the economic development of the country.
The pledge made by the Chinese Ambassador assumes significance in the given situation as lowering of the development spending would mean availability of less opportunities for employment for jobless people but this can be compensated by expediting the pace of implementation on CPEC projects as progress on many of them did not pick up during the last three years for mysterious reasons.
In this backdrop, the instructions recently issued by the Prime Minister for adherence to the timelines of all projects under the CPEC can help mitigate our economic vows if all hurdles in the way of implementation are resolved in close coordination with China.
As both Nong Rong and Special Assistant to PM on CPEC Khalid Mansoor are sincerely working to overcome difficulties, it is hoped that visible progress would be achieved on all stalled projects in the shortest possible time.
