ISLAMABAD: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) showed maturity and stability in the two countries’ already deep-rooted high-level friendship, said Haroon Sharif, former Minister of State and Chairman of the Board of Investment in Pakistan.
Since its launch, the CPEC has significantly improved Pakistan’s infrastructure and power sector, he said. Referring to the CPEC, he said it strengthened the friendship to a great extent, he said, “The roots of the friendship are very deep and caring. It has multiple facets. We have had a rather romantic relationship that we have seen the role of China for Pakistan at the global level and vice versa.
“On thinking of China in my student years, the first thought was the China-Pakistan friendship,” recalled Haroon Sharif. “Along with the socio-economic developments under the CPEC, human interaction between Pakistanis and Chinese has also increased, which is proving to be very helpful for people to understand each other from many angles beyond traditional ways, Sharif said.
Sharif added, “The real people’s partnership will take place when they understand each other’s language and culture.” As Chinese universities are already attracting Pakistani students, two- or four-years’ studying made them have much deeper understanding of Chinese culture and people.
Sharif advised to scale up knowledge corridor by opening joint universities. Chinese faculty should come to Pakistan. By this way, the interaction of people will increase.
“In order to convert this interaction into knowledge, we have to make some investments in media, education and culture, like television stations and joint collaboration in films,” said Sharif.
He noted that the CPEC welcomed investment in agriculture and logistics. It is a game changer as it has brought employment, prosperity and socio-economic development to the country, even to the region.
CPEC is also appealing to foreign investors as the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has been briefing what is happening at Gwadar port, the progress of various projects. Foreign investors from Saudi Arabia and Qatar are watching CPEC closely, he added.
Agriculture will be a priority for their investment, according to Sharif, as Pakistan is an agricultural country with big potential and these countries have to import all the foodstuffs from abroad.
If Pakistan gets their investment and increase agriculture sector productivity to grow enough food stuff (with China’s technologies), and then these countries can meet their needs by importing food from Pakistan.
Following agriculture, comes the logistics sector. As CPEC is such a big corridor that all kind of services will be needed. When the ports are built, storage is needed. When trades are done, transport is needed.
The investors have a special interest in the trade logistics.
Sharif pointed out that Pakistan will have an advantage as a connecting hub. When this connectivity is completed, foreigner investors will get access to the Pakistani market with more than 200 million people. In the future, Pakistan’s connectivity toward West Asia and Central Asia will also be increased. – Agencies
