CPEC transforms Pakistan's development landscape: minister

This photo taken on Feb. 28, 2024 shows part of the China-built Suki Kinari Hydropower station in the Mansehra district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (The Overseas Investment Company of China Gezhouba Group/Handout via Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has played a significant role in transforming the development landscape of the South Asian country.

The minister said while chairing a meeting on CPEC on Friday that the influx of approximately 25 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese investment under the framework of CPEC over the past 10 years has boosted critical sectors of Pakistan, including energy, infrastructure, and telecommunications.

He said that Pakistan and China have successfully completed the first phase of the CPEC project, highlighting the need to make preparations and efforts for the second phase of CPEC to usher in a new era of development with new economic projects.

A Chinese engineer prepares to start impoundment of the China-built Suki Kinari Hydropower station in the Mansehra district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Feb. 28, 2024. (The Overseas Investment Company of China Gezhouba Group/Handout via Xinhua)

Commenting on the progress of various infrastructural projects in the country's southwest Gwadar district, Iqbal said that Phase I of the Gwadar Expressway is completed and operational, while work on Phase II will commence soon.

The minister said five new corridors for future collaboration are being implemented under CPEC, with a focal emphasis on economic corridors geared towards job creation, innovation, green energy, and inclusive regional development.

Pragmatic strategies within each corridor would be thoroughly deliberated, aligning them with national development objectives and priorities, he added.

Launched in 2013, CPEC, the flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is a corridor linking the Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan's Balochistan province with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport, and industrial cooperation in the first phase, while in the new phase expands to fields of agriculture and livelihood, among others.