KARACHI, Mar 18 (APP): The participants of a dialogue on China Pakistan Economic Corridor here on Thursday underlined the need for political harmony, stability, sustained economic policies, and further improved security situation to attract investment for the projects in various sectors under CPEC umbrella.
“Political harmony is must to encourage especially foreign investors. CPEC is above parties agenda, but a national project. We, all must keep national interests supreme and behave accordingly,” said Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on CPEC, Sher Ali Arbab while participating in “Regional Dialogue on the Role of Parliament in Promoting Exports, Trade and Commerce under CPEC in Sindh. And, CPEC Industrial Cooperation and its Way Forward,” held at a local hotel.
Arbab said this dialogue was a part of the series of such interactive programmes to be held in different cities of the country including Gwadar and Muzzafarabad to get maximum feedback on CPEC from the stakeholders to make it more beneficial for the country and for the people. The ideas /recommendations harvested through these dialogues would be presented at National Conference on CPEC to be held in Islamabad.
He said the Parliamentary Committee could better perform only with the support and active participation of all provincial governments and other stakeholders of CPEC.
“CPEC is originally Pakistan Government’s project but it can’t be successful with full support of provinces and territories,” he remarked adding that the committee members represented Parliament and they would have to work for Pakistan and the nation rising above their party line.
He said foreign investment was needed for industrial growth in the country and for this purpose a lot of initiatives and work was needed.
About Karachi Circular Railways project, he said it was viable project and was proposed in Joint Coordination Committee and hopefully would be included in CPEC.
He said Dhabeji Speical Economic Zone and Allama Iqbal Industrial Zones were very viable for investment, but all SEZs would be successful only when there were good infrastructure and utilities available. Now, serious efforts were being made on this account.
He informed that Chinese government had given one billion dollars grant for socio-economic initiatives in Pakistan and was willing to give more funds for the same.
Dr.Jochen Hippler, Country Director (Pakistan) of German institution Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung also mentioned that Pakistan needs to build democratic trust to become an attractive place for foreign investment. Foreigners had also security reservations to visit Gwadar, the central point of CPEC. He was of the view that more political harmony was needed in Pakistan to build confidence among the foreign investors , which was must to reap the real benefits of CPEC as a part of China’s One Road-One Belt international initiative. FES was working for promoting social democracy in the world with more than 100 offices in different countries including China.
Dr. Hippler underlined the need for Pakistan to become competitive in the regional and international markets, along with diversifying its export products instead of being confined to textile products to increase its exports as Pakistan’s traditional export goods were losing ground because of increasing competition and innovations. CPEC would keep Pakistani businesses on very tough competition.
“China is much better in competitiveness,” he remarked.
Pakistan government and other stakeholders would have to make more serious and targeted efforts to achieve the goals of CPEC, which was a big opportunity for bringing socio-economic change.
He said Pakistan’s National Assembly was also a partner with FES and the two had also signed MoU for promoting social democracy.
Another member of CPEC Committee , PTI’s MNA Sadaqat Ali Khan Abbasi said CPEC was a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. It provided infrastructure development opportunities. It was also linkage between energy rich and energy hungry countries.
He said when new routes were opening , many industries might suffer due to in-efficiency and uncompetitiveness.
“We shall have to prepare for competitiveness. We must do cost analysis,” he emphasized.
He said the Parliamentary Committee was trying to bring together official and non-official stakeholders for better decisions and planning to execute CPEC projects.
Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister on Works, Services, Universities and Boards, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro appreciated the holding of the dialogue on CPEC and termed the corridor as game changer not only for Pakistan but for the world.
He spoke Sindh government’s initiatives to benefit from CPEC.
Javed Iqbal from Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry stressed on strong connectivity within the country, along with regional connectivity to benefit from CPEC.
Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister , Ashfaq Memon emphasized that entrepreneurship development should be made a part of CPEC to meet the global needs. There was also need for more efforts to ensure availability of skilled labour largly demanded in the emerging world.
Chairman, Sindh Planning and Development Department, Muhammad Waseem gave presentation on CPEC projects in the province and their potential, which included energy, Karachi Mass Transit projects and Dhabeji Special Economic Zone which had received big response from international companies.
He also highlighted many development projects successfully executed by Sindh Government.
Dr. Nooreen Mujahid, Chairperson of Department of Economics,Staff Club spoke on importance of blue economy and urged on making it an important component of CPEC.
Leading industrialist Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig underlined the need for more targeted steps to increase the country’s exports under CPEC.
