BEIJING: Seven years after the launch of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, said that major progress has been made and that the projects had brought more than $25 billion of direct investments to Pakistan.
During a regular briefing, Wenbin lauded the completion of Pakistan’sfirst electricity-run public transport project, the Orange Line Metro Line in Lahore. The OLMT was made operational last month, marking the beginning of the subway era for Pakistan, he said.
Speaking on another project of CPEC, he said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by China, under the dynamic leadership of President Xi Jinping, had enhanced infrastructure and power supply in Pakistan and created employment opportunities for the locals as well as contributing towards the growth of GDP.
These projects created more than 70,000 direct positions and contributed 1 to 2 percentage points of the country’s GDP growth, he said.
He also said that the projects had helped regional connectivity and prosperity, citing the example of Afghanistan, which was importing food and other essential items from the Gwadar port.
“Gwadar port, since first half of this year, started shipping cargo, weighing about 20,000 tons that carried wheat, sugar and fertilizers to Afghanistan. This created about 1,000 jobs”, he added.
Reiterating support to the flagship project, which was launched after a consensus between the leaderships of the two countries, he said that China’s support to CPEC will continue.
Existing programs have focused more on livelihood, industry and agriculture, and to change the CPEC into a demonstration project of high-quality BRI development which will bring more benefits to the two countries and the region, he added.
Appreciating the positive remarks made by Pakistan’s top leadership towards the CPEC projects, Wenbin said, “We have noted the remarks about CPEC which is an important pilot project and flagship projects of China-Pakistan cooperation and BRI development”.
Last month, China had lauded President Dr Arif Alvi’s remarks about the CPEC, when the premier had termed the Belt and Road Initiative as a visionary project.
In an interview, President Alvi had expressed optimism about the future of Pakistan and said, as a result of CPEC projects, Pakistan was going to emerge as a geostrategic economic hub.
In response to a question about other countries participating in CPEC, Wenbin said that the Chinese side would welcome interested countries to join CPEC to jointly contribute to regional and global stability and prosperity.
