ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said that the centre and provinces are on the same page about the 7th Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC, adding provinces would get the ownership of the Special Economic Zones.
Talking to media after the Pre-7th JCC on CPEC, the minister said the JCC, which is scheduled for November 20 and 21, will focus on industrial and business to business cooperation. The pre-JCC meeting was attended by both the Governor and Chief Minister KP, Punjab’s senior minister, PM AJK, Deputy Speaker GB assembly, and representatives of Sindh and Baluchistan.
He said in the first day of the JCC meeting, experts would discuss the projects while on second day the leadership of both China and Pakistan would finalise thyese projects.
Ahsan said that this time the private sector would be included in the upcoming 7th JCC on CPEC. In this regard, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry has been invited to attend the meeting, he maintained. He said in the 7th JCC, the projects approved in the sixth JCC meeting would be materialised.
Earlier addressing the pre-JCC meeting, the minister said in the first phase of the CPEC, focus was completely kept on fulfilling energy requirements by providing infrastructure. Regarding Karachi Circular Railway and ML-I Railway project, the minister said these projects would be discussed in the upcoming JCC and the issues regarding KCR would be resolved before the meeting, he added.
He said that the CPEC energy projects have been completed and some of them have become operational as well which included Sahiwal Coal Power Plant with capacity of 1320 Megawatts of energy. He said work on the Port Qasim is also completed and it would be inaugurated this month.
Ahsan Iqbal said the second phase of CPEC projects would focus on industrial and business to business cooperation. He said in this regard the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry will be included in the seventh JCC meeting. The minister said the government has provided ownership of the industrial zones to all the provinces to avoid any complaints.
He said the provincial governments were asked to promote their respective zones according to their strengths and resources. He said in coming years about eighty-five million jobs would be relocated by China in different regions of the world and this is a golden chance for Pakistan to take benefit from it and grab most of these jobs.
Meanwhile talking to media, Governor KP Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said that he discussed the establishment of Special Economic Zone in FATA, which would be helpful in the implementation of FATA reforms. Chief Minister KP Parvez Khattak said that so far the work of NHA in the execution of infrastructure projects is remarkable.