From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Chief Lt. General Asim Saleem Bajwa (retd) said Pakistan will start reaping the benefits of the second phase of CPEC in the form of industrial and agricultural development in addition to a better road connectivity.
“Several roads under CPEC are in their final phase expected to be inaugurated in 2021 and after their completion, locals will experience better connectivity, and business opportunities in the country will increase,” Bajwa said in a statement reported on Sunday.
Bajwa said that the second phase of CPEC will contribute to poverty alleviation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in Pakistan.
Launched in 2013, CPEC is a corridor linking Gwadar port in southwest Pakistan with Kashgar in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport and industrial cooperation.
Commenting on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being established under the framework of CPEC, Bajwa said that they were receiving many applications from local and foreign enterprises to invest in the SEZs where the government was providing a one-window operation to facilitate the investors.
In Allama Iqbal SEZ of Punjab province’s Faisalabad city, investors from Canada, Britain and Germany have applied to set up industry in the form of joint ventures with local partners in the SEZ, he said.
“Apart from them, Pakistani-American doctors along with some US doctors have approached to establish a pharmaceutical sector in the SEZ,” Bajwa said.
He said efficient and corporate farming is going to be introduced for the first time in the country in cooperation with China under CPEC.
“Model farms are going to be started on vast areas of land under CPEC from the next crop, and a 25-percent enhancement in local yields is expected under the guidance of Chinese experts on the farms, he said.
