FAISALABAD: China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has emerged as the most vibrant political and economic block with the ultimate objective to weed out poverty and bring prosperity in the third world countries linked with it, said Engineer Ahmad Hassan, Chairman FCCI standing committee on Research & Development (R&D).
Addressing a meeting at FCCI here, he said that Pakistan is blessed with a geo-strategic position connecting several sub-regions of Asia and the Arabian Sea. He said that Pakistan’s immediate neighbour Afghanistan has no access to sea and the 17 years conflict has slowed down its economy. “The central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are also landlocked countries but with abundance of natural resources”, he said and added that with CPEC and its synergies with other existing regional connectivity projects, both regions could have the opportunity to work together to expand economic ties and overcome fiscal and energy deficits. He said that CPEC is the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative that has not only enhanced Pakistan’s importance to Asia, but also promotes regional connectivity in central and south Asia.
Engineer Ahmed Hassan said that One Belt One Road (OBOR) and CPEC have created multiple opportunities for regional connectivity by involving various states in development projects that could benefit all parties. “In the next years and decades, this region comprising China and the other participant states in the OBOR initiative might become a separate economic bloc directly linked with the growing Chinese economy”, he added.