ISLAMABAD: Ahsan Iqbal, the federal minister planning, development and reforms, has stated that the first phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be completed by 2018. The production of 10,000 megawatts of energy under CPEC would help overcome energy crisis by 2018 as well as the existing road network will be upgraded, especially western route through construction of missing links on it. This, he said, will provide a safest and shortest passage for the transportation of cargoes from Gwadar to other parts of the country as well as China.
In a statement, Iqbal said that Pakistan and China are working closely and wholeheartedly to implement CPEC projects in speediest manner. Both sides are in touch under CPEC framework and are moving ahead smoothly and promptly to complete the CPEC projects.
The federal minister planning and development said that both sides realized the importance of CPEC for their own interests and for the benefit of whole the region to integrate it economically for social and economic uplift three billion people of the region.
Ahsan Iqbal said that there is unanimity in file and ranks of Pakistani society that CPEC is a historical opportunity for sustained economic development and inclusive prosperity of the country and we must capitalize on it through a united approach. Pakistan political leadership, civilian government and military leadership, time and again, demonstrated their commitment to completion of CPEC. “They are all on the same page for a bigger national cause,” Ahsan Iqbal stated and added that declarations of two All Parties Conferences (APCs) on CPEC bear testimony to this fact.
