Reaffirming Beijing’s readiness to work with Pakistan, President Xi Jinping highlighted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as an exemplary project of high quality. He said China and Pakistan have adhered to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in advancing the project.
Xi highlighted the CPEC has injected new momentum into Pakistan’s economic and social development and laid a solid foundation for regional connectivity and integration. “The CPEC serves as a vivid testament to the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan. It has provided important support for building an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.”
The Chinese president urged Beijing and Islamabad to forge ahead in solidarity to carry forward the ironclad friendship, coordinate development and security, and pursue cooperation of higher standards, broader scope and greater depth.
China and Pakistan have given the go ahead to Phase II of CPEC. They have decided to expedite the process of the multi-billion-dollar Main Line (ML)-1 railway project that has been facing delay for years. Both sides also signed the minutes of the last Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting. Pakistan’s Shehbaz-led coalition government has revived the CPEC projects which were neglected in the past.
MoU aimed at fostering exchange programmers of the workforce associated with CPEC projects for skills development, technical training, language courses, and Chinese experience sharing in special economic zones (SEZs) development has also been signed. It provides a platform to augment meaningful people-to-people exchanges, and strengthens the Pak-China Industrial Cooperation, and development of SEZs through Chinese intellectual support.
This also enhances the competitiveness of the CPEC workforce to meet local industrial requirements, supports the requirement of skilled labor to attract Chinese industrial relocation envisaged through the CPEC industrial cooperation.
It should be noted that the CPEC consists of a variety of infrastructure projects, including roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines from Pakistan’s Gwadar Port to Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
