ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) second phase will be undertaken under a new model.
Speaking after the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and China, the prime minister said on the completion of 10 years of the CPEC, he was grateful for the visit of Chinese Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng to Pakistan.
The PM said he did not doubt that “we are entering the second phase of CPEC today, and we have signed some important documents which will further enhance our economic cooperation and will undertake [the] second phase of CPEC under a new model”.
He said it would be between B2B, as well as investment in agriculture, in information technology so that Pakistan, through Chinese cooperation and support, could export its items according to the requirement and the standard of the Chinese government.
The PM added that Pakistan was ready to contribute to the Chinese president’s vision of a shared destiny, progress and prosperity, and ML-I was a significant project, Karachi circular was an important project, and expressed the hope that together in time to come, those projects and many others would be completed.
The premier said the CPEC was signed ten years ago between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former Chinese president Xi Jinping and immediately its implementation started.
He said, “Thanks to this agreement, today we can say that more than $25 billion has been invested in Pakistan’s energy, road, infrastructure, public transport, and hydel power sectors.”
He said he was grateful to Xi Jinping for sending the Deputy Prime Minister of China as a special ambassador to Pakistan. “This will send a message to the world that China and Pakistan are linked in a unique relationship. We are all-weather friends, iron brothers, and this friendship will continue and will not tolerate any obstacle in its way.”
Before the prime minister’s address at the ceremony, MoUs were signed between China and Pakistan.
Earlier, China’s Vice Premier and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Lifeng, met Shehbaz Sharif after arriving in Pakistan to attend the ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the CPEC. He reached the Prime Minister’s House, where he was warmly welcomed.
