Islamabad     -     National Assembly will organise a seminar to discuss expansion of CPEC beyond Pakistan and China to Central Asia next month.

The National Assembly would hold a seminar on CPEC in December with the focus that how project could be linked with Central Asia, stated by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser while talking as chief guest at a ceremony organized by Pakistan-China Institute along with Power China here. Asad Qaiser launched sustainable development report compiled by PowerChina and its research study on 1,320MW Port Qasim Coal-fired Power Plant, established in 2017, under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Speaker NA said that earlier they had reservations over the western route of CPEC but now they have been removed.

Speaker NA said that Pakistan faced terrorism for last several years that ruined its economy, which had been eliminated and now “We are seeing light in the form of CPEC, which will take us towards development and prosperity.”

Asad Qaiser said that “Parliament of Pakistan fully supports CPEC and, Insha Allah, we will take it forward, including the second phase started with the Rashakai Special Economic Zone, whose ground breaking is scheduled in December 2019.” 

He also announced that the National Assembly will organise a seminar in December to discuss expansion of CPEC beyond Pakistan and China to Central Asia and he said that he had instructed the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC to initiate seminars in different parts of Pakistan. Stating that “I am representative of China in Pakistan”,

Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub while addressing the ceremony said that in Pakistan there is potential of 40 billion dollars investment in electricity transmission and distribution system. Besides he said that in the alternative energy area there is also a potential of $ 40 billion investment. He said that the government is planning to achieve the target of 55000MW electricity by 2030.

Chinese ambassador Yao Jing said the Port Qasim Power Plant was a success story of cooperation and implementation of the CPEC projects. “The CPEC, after the five-year implementation with the joint efforts from both the Pakistani and Chinese governments, has started achieving tremendous progress in various sectors especially energy and infrastructure.

CPEC has now entered to its second phase where cooperation in agriculture, social and industrial sectors will be focused, he maintained.

Earlier, Senator Mushahid Hussain syed has termed CPEC as the “economic future of Pakistan. He said that CPEC has restored the confidence of the investors in the country. He said that the next phase of CPEC is related to social and education development. Other speakers lauded CPEC as the “economic future of Pakistan” and termed CPEC as a “success story”.