PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday underlined the government’s commitment to unlocking the full economic and connectivity potential of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through expedited and high-quality development of CPEC projects.
Talking to Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong on Thursday, he emphasised the importance of key projects like Main Line One (ML-1) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in Pakistan’s development plans and expressed a desire to move towards the finalization of these projects in the upcoming 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee.
Propaganda of foreign vested interests notwithstanding, the fact remains that the CPEC is instrumental in stimulating socio-economic development of Pakistan.
This is because it is not only aimed at improving connectivity by way of updating and modernizing the otherwise fragile infrastructure of the country but also helping the country to move towards industrialization, transfer of technology, tapping optimum potential of agriculture and creating vast employment opportunities in the length and breadth of the country.
Pakistan badly needs to develop the Gwadar Port and China is providing valuable assistance in realizing the target of all-round development of the port and completion of the related projects would surely contribute towards realization of the dream of Pakistan to make it a hub of regional trade and investment.
There are reasons to believe that the economic conditions of the country would have been quite different if there was no disruption in the smooth implementation of all projects under the umbrella of CPEC.
Several important projects received serious setbacks during the tenure of the last government and it is a big challenge for the incumbent government to restore the previous momentum.
However, it is satisfying that political commitment is there on both sides and hopefully all CPEC projects and programmes would be revitalized in the shortest possible time.
The government is understandably focusing on the overall economy but a sharp focus on CPEC has the potential to address most of the economic woes of the country.
