By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) on Thursday announced the winners of the nationwide photography competition on projects related to Road and Belt Initiative. The competition received over 1500 entries for showcasing the progress of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a prominent project within China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The last date for submitting photographs for the ‘Nationwide Best Belt and Road Initiative Projects Photography Competition,’ organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with PCI was October 7. The competition meant to capture the essence and impact of CPEC and other BRI projects in Pakistan, received submissions in three categories: ‘Infrastructure and Development,’ ‘People and Stories’, and ‘Environmental Impact.’ A panel of renowned photographers, artists and relevant government authorities had judged the entries.
Speaking on the occasion, Director General Radio Pakistan Muhammad Tahir Hassan appreciated the role of media in promoting people to people contacts among the nations.
He said that CPEC was a game-changer project and when the historian of future would write history, it would be written as the topmost initiative in Pakistan’s infrastructure development projects. He said that Pakistan’s people, especially youth should see the CPEC as a project of paradigm shift and one of the biggest projects in the nation building process.
He said that CPEC had over 3000 km road infrastructure projects, over 2.5 million job opportunities and when completed it would contribute to over 2 percent of GDP growth.
He lauded the Pakistan-China Institute for highlighting the soft side of the CPEC by the photographic competition. Professor Li Xiguang, an eminent Chinese scholar said that his love for Pakistan had started almost 50 years ago when in 1970 he read a story about China supplying defence equipment to Pakistan in a newspaper. He said after completing his studies he had started work as a journalist and had visited Pakistan many times. He said he had been doing his doctorate on Gandhara art from a university in Pakistan and Professor Ahmed Hassan Dani was one of his beloved teachers. He said that Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed was a close friend of him who helped him befriend many well known Pakistani personalities. He congratulated the winners of the competition and expressed the hope that the exhibition of the entries in the competition would also be held in China. “The objective of this competition is to highlight the importance of CPEC and encourage our youth in healthy activities. Very glad to see that People from all over the Pakistan have participated in this competition” Executive Director PCI, Mustafa Hyder Sayed said. He said that the think-tank dedicated to fostering people-to-people ties between Pakistan and China, has planned to organize a trip to China for the award winners. First prize with Rs 100,000 cash prize was won by Aqsa Zahoor. Second prize winners receiving Rs 80,000 cash included M. Sarmad, Anwarul Haq Saeed, Osama Amin. The third prize winners for the photographic competition, who will get Rs 50000 as prize money included Azm Asghar, Miss Sania, Bilal Farooq Khan, Emmanuel Guddu and Rimsha Saboor.
