Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged Asian countries to overcome their differences so that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will fully realize its promise. “Today Asia and the world are at an important juncture,” said PM Khan while virtually speaking at the Conference on Future of Asia under the theme Shaping the Post-Covid Era: Asia’s Role in the Global Recovery on Friday.
“Our first priority at present is to confront and conquer the COVID19 virus pandemic. This virus has created the worst global health, economic and social crisis in the past hundred years. Unless fully contained it could create total chaos and threaten peace in Asia and elsewhere in the world,” the prime minister stated.
The COVID pandemic, according to the Prime Minister, has harmed the vulnerable and developed nations, but we must hold our markets free in order to recover quickly.
“It is essential to provide the low-income countries and others in financial distress with fiscal space and liquidity to respond to the impact of the pandemic and revive their economic growth and preserve social stability,” he said.
“To ensure rapid recovery we in Asia and elsewhere must keep economies open, revive disrupted supply chains and resist protection temptation,” said the prime minister.
PM said that he proposed a five-point agenda for debt relief, the Special Drawing Rights and reallocation, larger concessional finance, fulfillment of climate finance commitments, and an end to illicit financial flows from developing countries.
“I am gratified that consensus is evolving on these essential actions already. I welcome the extension of G20’s debt suspension initiative, the agreement to create $650 billion in new SDRs, to expand International Development Association funding, and to expand emergency support programs for multilateral development banks. The recommendation of the FACTII panel on illicit financial flows must be implemented,” he said.
“Resilient and dynamic economic growth particularly in Asia depends significantly upon greater integration and physical connectivity,” he said. The prime minister was of the view that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides an important pathway to such regional integration across the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
“The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative. It has generated economic activity, employment and will enhance bilateral and regional trade,” Khan said.
He said that Pakistan has extended an invitation to all friendly countries to invest in the CPEC’s various economic industrial zones. “Pakistan aspires to be a geoeconomic crossroads linking the economies of Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and beyond,” he added.
He said that Pakistan has invited all friendly countries to invest in the several economic industrial zones being established under the CPEC umbrella. “Pakistan looks towards serving as a geo-economic hub connecting the economies of Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and beyond,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the Asia Pacific countries must resolve their differences in order for the country to have stability, protection, and economic growth.
He urged the international community to intervene in the illegally occupied Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, where occupying powers are committing massacres.
Imran Khan said that in order to restore talks, India must avoid violating human rights in occupied territories and revoke the unlawful acts taken on August 5, 2019. According to him, the Kashmir issue can be settled by following UN resolutions.
