The peoples of Pakistan are anxiously waiting the visit of Chinese president .Ahsan Iqbal Federal Minister for Planning

The peoples of Pakistan are anxiously waiting the visit of Chinese president .Ahsan Iqbal Federal Minister for Planning

by;Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof. Ahsan Iqbal has said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a key initiative which will help Pakistan in meeting energy shortfall and linking with regional economies particularly China.
The peoples of Pakistan are anxiously waiting the visit of Chinese president .
The Minister made these remarks during the meeting with Chinese media delegation led by Mr. Du Haitao Ms, Wang Jue ,Mr. Xu Wei, ,Mr. Yang Xun and Xu Wei, on the invitation of The Daily Mail and Pak-China Media Friendship Association here on Thursday.
The minister said Chinese Government was keen to pursue the CPEC and has shown trust in government’s policies. However, he said, that “we have to deliver results according to strict timelines and work on full capacity to avail this historic window of opportunity.”
Addressing the Chinese media Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said the visit of China’s media delegation will play the vital role to strengthen Pak china relation,. Chinese government already expressed its full commitment to help Pakistan overcome energy challenge, he added. He said that everyone including politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats must come together for betterment of Pakistan and bring this country out of darkness.
He said “we have to act and act fast.” Ahsan Iqbal said that the CPEC had assumed paramount importance and significance. In July 2013 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif undertook visit of China and signed an MoU on the CPEC. Following the visit, the energy and transport groups visited Pakistan and saw physically the needs and prospects of projects to come to an agreement to draw a mutually shared agenda for the CPEC.

He said that in the transport sector, with the cooperation of China, the Karachi-Lahore motorway, the Multan-Sukkur section would be constructed and the other sections would be built on BOT basis. At Gwadar, a modern airport will be built, hospital and training facility, industrial parks would be set up. The Karakoram Highway (KKH) will also be upgraded and modernized. The Minister also shed light on the importance of Gaddani Energy Park which has been dedicated as Pak-China Energy Park, which will be country’s biggest energy projects with 6,600 Megawatt capacity. He said, “It’s now or never. We have to accept the challenge and pounce on this opportunity. History will never forgive us if we failed to do so.”He highlighted that generation of electricity was not the only issue but transmission and distribution mechanism must also be upgraded to take electricity to consumers, as an increase in generation will overload the already over-loaded transmission lines. He said that this economic corridor was a golden opportunity for Pakistan. He said the government of Pakistan had made significant progress for doing its part. For example, the Karachi-Lahore motorway, and Gwadar port related projects have completed necessary formalities to put the projects on ground.
.government of Pakistan had made the CPEC a hallmark within its development agenda and the projects carried great transformational impact on the lives of millions of people. He said that the CPEC would be a game changer not only for Pakistan and China but for the entire region.He monitor the progress of energy projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.Prof Ahsan said that consensus had been achieved on many projects that would help Pakistan meet its increasing energy demands. He said that according to the energy projects agreed 9,000 megawatts of electricity would be made available by 2017-18 in the short-term that would fulfill energy needs and even lay the foundation of meeting the future needs of energy.