BRI to bring connectivity, economic growth

ISLAMABAD, April 20 (Xinhua) — Pakistani international relations and foreign policy experts have said during a webinar that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will enhance regional connectivity and bring brighter future to its members.

Speaking at the event held by the Islamia University of Bahawalpur in the country’s east Punjab province on Monday, Shafei Moiz Hali, assistant professor from the National Defense University, Islamabad said that the BRI will give benefit to a large population of the world that will be better connected via different routes.

He said that China’s infrastructure investments within the BRI will usher in a new era of trade and growth for economies in Asia and beyond, and the members of the BRI will be able to rewrite their fate with the massive trade opportunities.

Farhan Khan, assistant professor from the same university, said in his comments that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the BRI, will bring sustaining economic development to help poverty and unemployment alleviation in Pakistan.

“CPEC will open up new vistas to job creation, economic growth, and increase in exports. It also has a local dimension in terms of economic and technological connectivity of different regions of Pakistan,” he added.

In the concluding remarks at the webinar, Vice Chancellor of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur Athar Mahboob said that CPEC will lead towards transformation in the economic outlook of Pakistan and bring industrial revolution in Pakistan after bringing infrastructural progress in the first phase.