Pakistan, China agree to execute second phase of CPEC in the third JWG meeting

Pakistan and China have expressed satisfaction on steady progress made on various projects and agreed to execute second phase of CPEC.

According to press release, the third meeting of Joint Working between Pakistan and China was held today to review the long-term plan of China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives Syed Zafar Ali Shah and 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 implementation of the CPEC long-term plan.

Both sides expressed satisfaction on steady progress made on various projects, focused on Agriculture Cooperation, Industrial Cooperation, Science and Technology, Information Technology and Socio-Economic Development.

Both sides noted that out of 26 CPEC-Early Harvest Projects, 14 projects including Karachi-Lahore Motorway,  Multan-Sukkur Section, KKH (Phase-II) up gradation and reconstruction from Raikot to Islamabad via Mansehra, Eastbay Expressway, 1320 MW Port Qasim Power Plant, 1320MW Sahiwal Power Plant and 720 MW Karot HPP  have been completed, while currently 5 projects including New Gwadar International Airport and 873 MW Suki Kinari HPP are under execution.

The meeting was also informed that the Government of Pakistan is actively implementing various projects, in close collaboration with the Provincial Governments to ensure efficient and time 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 & Climate Change” as new area of cooperation under the framework of CPEC for efficient water resources management, development of climate resilient infrastructure.

Director General of the National Development and Reforms Commission of China, representatives of Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Aviation, Finance, Economic Affairs, Gwadar Port Authority, Gwadar Development Authority as well as representatives of their counterparts in China also attended the meeting.