Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Monday said that a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) was going to be signed on Tuesday (tomorrow) in Beijing for establishment of two new Joint Working Groups under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

In his tweet, the minister informed that the new working groups would be formed in areas of agriculture and science and technology.

The joint working groups work under CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) which is co-chaired by Pakistan’s Planning Minister and Chinese Vice Chairman National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

There are eight working groups which are already functional in a range of areas including planning, energy, transport, Special Economic Zones, international cooperation, Gwadar, security, and socio-economic development.

The agreement would be signed during a visit of a Pakistani delegation headed by President Arif Alvi which left here for Beijing on Monday.

“This is part of the broadening of CPEC from the first phase which was mainly infrastructure to a much broader economic partnership,” Asad Umar said.

He said “the MoU states that the governments of China and Pakistan believe that CPEC has entered a new stage of enrichment and expansion with increasing cooperation areas, expanding cooperation scale and growing cooperation projects”.