By News DeskISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar has said a “CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) authority” will soon be established to speed up work on projects as he reiterated the government’s resolve of “not compromising” on its development.“The authority will help strengthen the country’s endeavours to achieve the set economic targets and enhance regional connectivity,” Bakhtiar said at a news conference on Friday. He was flanked by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan.Bakhtiar said: “The required legal framework would be prepared for the purpose as soon as possible. We will soon come up with a bill so the CPEC authority is established as soon as possible.”He said the authority would be established after upgrading the existing CPEC infrastructure in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform. Skilled human resource would be hired for this purpose to run it “along modern lines” and strengthen the capabilities to achieve the set targets, he added.The minister said one of the purposes of establishing the authority was to speed up work on different CPEC projects so the long-term CPEC Plan 2030 for mutual benefit of China and Pakistan would be achieved and regional connectivity could be enhanced.“The $230 million Gwadar Airport has already been inaugurated, while work on [a] water plant, Gwadar Vocational Training Institution and hospital is under way,” he said. “The CPEC is the manifestation of long-term relations between China and Pakistan.”He also said by the end of October this year, his Chinese counterpart — along with a delegation — would reach Islamabad to attend the ninth annual Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on CPEC.Bakhtiar said the government would also begin work this year on the “most important” $8.5 billion CPEC railway project to upgrade the Main Line 1 (ML-1).Furthermore, he said the Multan-Sukkur motorway was set to launch in August this year while the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway would also be completed soon. “In the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, the government has set aside funds for the completion of western route of CPEC.”He added: “Due to crisis in Pakistan’s energy sector, international investors were reluctant to come to Pakistan, but at this difficult stage our all-weather friend China came forward and invested heavily in Pakistan’s power sector to bring the country out of crisis.”He said the government-to-government focus was shifting to a business-to-business focus and the private sector would be engaged in the mega projects of the country to ease budgetary pressure on the government at the same time developing the country’s small and medium enterprises.The minister said: “Recently, a high level Chinese business delegation had visited Pakistan and committed to invest around $5 billion in the industrial sector of the country.”To a question, the minister said Pakistan’s balance-of-payments issue could be resolved by the relocation of Chinese industry in Pakistan, which would help producing value-added export-oriented products to boost exports.
07-14-2019, 01:15 PM
Govt to set up ?CPEC authority?: Khusro
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