Islamabad - The establishment of Pak-China Economic Corridor isn’t aimed to undermine the interests of any country; rather it aims to economically upgrade the otherwise poor bordering regions of both countries by connecting Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan to China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang via highways, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas, stated Yuan Jianmin, a renowned and politically influential personality of Xinjiang province of China.
Yuan, who is an honorary visiting Professor NUML, holds portfolios of deputy secretary general, China Council for International Investment Promotion, executive director and MD Sinotrans and CSC Xinjinag Co Ltd, standing vice chairman of Xinjiang Institute of Foreign Affairs and vice chairman of Xinjiang International Chamber of Commerce, China. He expressed these views while addressing the gathering of deans, directors, heads, faculty and students of different departments at National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad on the topic of “Pak-China Relations: Pak-China Economic Corridors.”
Yuan said that the idea of connecting different countries of this region economically with one common route was quite old.
Different programmes had been appearing by different regional players at different times. The US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton during her visit to India in 2011 floated the idea of an economic zone to connect the North with the South, the president of Russia proposed the idea of Euro-Asia silk route, Japan extended the concept of Asian Silk route for the region and they all were meant to surround and contain China, he added.
He went on saying that finally Chinese President Xi Jinping presented ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative which was the establishment of New Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road to deepen global peace and development through establishment of intensive physical and other forms of connectivity as well as cooperative ties between China and the countries across Eurasia, Africa and beyond.
Pakistani and Chinese leadership had held number of meetings and reached an understanding for the investment of more than billions of dollars to facilitate road and railway links between China and Pakistan, energy and power provision, development of telecom, trade, live stock, coal and hydro power sectors, export of sea food to China and many other products between the two brotherly countries, he enumerated.
The NUML was at front to carry forward the cause of Pakistan-China Economic Corridor by disseminating the knowledge of Chinese language and culture here in Pakistan and Urdu and English in the Chinese institutions and universities of China and especially in Urumqi through the establishment of NUML International Centre of Education (NICE), he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Director General Brig Azam Jamal eulogised extensive engagement of Yuan for promoting an understanding and importance of Pak-China Economic Corridor, which was going to play a significant role in the development of Pakistan, and his key role in endeavours of establishing NICE in Urumqi.
Lastly, Rector NUML Maj Gen (Retd) Masood Hasan conferred a letter of authorisation to appoint Yuan as representative of NUML Affairs in People’s Republic of China and ensured all possible assistance of NUML to Chinese universities and institutions to communicate with the world.