The third meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) between the governments of Pakistan and China was held on Monday to review the long-term plan of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), where both sides agreed to start deepening the work done and then execution of the second phase of CPEC.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Secretary Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Syed Zafar Ali Shah and the Deputy Director General of the National Development and Reforms Commission of China Pan Jiang through video conference.
The meeting reviewed and summarized the implementation status of the CPEC projects and deliberated upon the future course of action with regard to the implementation of the CPEC long-term plan.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the steady progress made on various projects and agreed to start deepening the work done and then execution of the second phase of CPEC, which is focused on agriculture cooperation, industrial cooperation, science and technology, information technology, and socioeconomic development.
It was noted that since the last meeting of JWG on planning and CPEC’s long-term plan held in November 2019, a number of developments have taken place. Globally this period remained marred by the COVID-19 pandemic preventing the free movement of people between countries and regions. Despite these restrictions and difficulties posed by the pandemic, substantial progress has been achieved.
Both sides noted that out of 26 CPEC-early harvest projects, 14 projects including Karachi-Lahore Motorway, Multan-Sukkur Section, Karakorum Highway (Phase-II) upgradation and reconstruction from Raikot to Islamabad via Mansehra, Eastbay Expressway, 1320 MW Port Qasim Power Plant, 1320 MW Sahiwal Power Plant and 720 MW Karot Hydropower Plant etc. have been completed, while currently, five projects, including New Gwadar International Airport, 873 MW Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, and others are under execution.
The meeting was also informed that the government of Pakistan was actively implementing various projects, in close collaboration with the provincial governments to ensure efficient and timely completion with a view to view to make the CPEC a roaring success and directly monitoring the progress of these projects on a monthly basis.
The two sides resolved to redouble the efforts to tap the full potential of cooperation as well as to make sure that the population of Pakistan fully benefit from these projects by utilizing the massive opportunities being created in various sectors.
Pakistani side proposed the inclusion of “water resources management and climate change” as a new area of cooperation under the framework of CPEC for efficient water resources management and development of climate resilient infrastructure.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Aviation, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gwadar Port Authority, Gwadar Development Authority, and their Chinese counterparts.
