Punjab Minister for Industries and Commerce, Mian Aslam Iqbal has said that Pakistan, especially Punjab with its highly skilled labour force and natural resources is ideal place to serve as the forward manufacturing base for industries of China and other countries.
These views were expressed by him while delivering the keynote address on behalf of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at the inaugural session of Punjab Chapter CEPC Industrial Cooperation and B2B (business to business) Investment Conference here at a local hotel on Tuesday.
Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman and Minister of State Mohammad Azfar Ahsan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on CPEC Khalid Mansoor also addressed the conference, while Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Nong Rong and Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque shared their view through video link.
Mian Aslam Iqbal said Pakistan and China are celebrating 70 years of brotherhood, and their leadership and the people have always stood by each other. He believed that such regular interactions of the businesses are most important to implement China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in an effective manner. CPEC is a great bond of mutual socio-economic growth between both the countries, creating investment opportunities not only for China and Pakistan but also for the whole world, he remarked.
He mentioned that with the 6th largest population, excellent road infrastructure, connectivity via rail and air links, large industrial base, green agriculture landscape and more than 500,000 graduates produced every year; Punjab is one of the most preferred investment destinations in the world.
The minister industries and commerce added, as CPEC is now becoming fully operational after the completion of the early harvest projects and the start of the second phase which shall result in industrial cooperation between Pakistan and China, Punjab has a critical role to assume. This second phase of CPEC demands focus on industrial cooperation, increase in agriculture production, value-addition and business connectivity in all sectors of the economy so as to learn and expand our market access, he maintained.
