China appreciates PM Shahbaz’s role in taking CPEC forward

BEIJING, Aug 03 (APP): China on Wednesday highly appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for pushing ahead building of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with new ‘Pakistan speed’ and acknowledged his untiring efforts for advancing practical cooperation between the two countries.

” We highly appreciate the prime minister’s statements. He (Shehbaz Sharif) has done so much for practical cooperation between the two countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular briefing in response to a question raised by APP.

Shehbaz Sharif in a recent meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Nong Rong underlined his commitment to unlock full economic and connectivity potential of CPEC through expedited and high-quality development of CPEC projects.

The spokesperson remarked that Prime Minister Sharif valued Pakistan’s relations with China, adding, ” Shehbaz Sharif has many times reaffirmed that Pakistan will push ahead the building of CPEC with new Pakistan speed.”

She said that after he took office, Prime Minister Sharif had visited Gwadar port twice and hosted seminar between the Pakistani side and Chinese companies and he had done so much for our practical cooperation.

“So with the guidance of the leaders of both countries and with our concerted efforts, we are seeing a lot of progress being made on CPEC,” he added.

Hua Chunying said, ” We are ready to further implement well the understandings between the leaders of our two countries and building on what we have achieved and current projects.”

She went on to say that the two countries would further focus on industrial development, people’s livelihoods, agriculture, Science and Technology and Information Technology etc. to make CPEC into a demonstration project for high quality Belt and Road cooperation.

“This will go a long way for China-Pakistan relations and the China-Pakistan community with a shared future and also the well-being of the two countries and the people around the region,” she added.

During the meeting held at PM House last week, the prime minister had emphasized the importance of key projects like Main Line One (ML-1) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in Pakistan’s development plans and expressed desire to move towards finalization of these projects in the upcoming 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee.