China has once again expressed its determination to work with Pakistan to upgrade the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin while answering a question during a briefing on Wednesday said, “China stands ready to work with Pakistan to deliver on the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries, deepen political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation.”
The statement comes in the wake of recent visit of Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong to Pakistan during which he had a detailed interaction with all those who matter in the country and co-chaired the fourth meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group on International Cooperation and Coordination with Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi. Based on the outcome of the latest moot of the CPEC JWP, it is expected that the two countries would move swiftly and meaningfully to expand and widen the scope of the CPEC, which is already contributing significantly to socio-economic growth of the country. Work on this historic initiative remained almost dormant during the tenure of the PTI but it is hoped that things would move speedily after formation of the new Government in Pakistan after February 08 elections. Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has also underlined that CPEC’s second phase required road and air connectivity around industrialization projects and both sides are engaged and have developed a lot of connectivity. We believe that Pakistan and its people would benefit hugely if work on the ongoing projects in Gwadar are completed on a fast-track basis and hurdles in the way of establishment of industrial estates, agricultural cooperation and ML-I projects are removed through focused attention.
