KARACHI: The western wing of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), connecting Gwadar port with rest of the country, would be completed by the end of next year, said Federal Minister for Planning, Reform and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday.

He made these remarks during a visit to the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). He was there to solicit suggestions from the business community for developing industrial clusters with Chinese cooperation under the CPEC.

He said the Frontier Works Organisation has begun development work and soon the Gwadar-Sukkur route would connect Balochistan’s underdeveloped areas with rest of the country, he said.

The minister said that he would visit all provincial chambers and take them into confidence with regard to industrial cooperation with China.

He urged the business community to identify areas of cooperation with China in setting up of industries so that a growth rate of 7-8 per cent in GDP could be attained and 1.2 million jobs per annum could be generated for the next 10 years.

Ahsan said the government wanted to solve issues by taking all stakeholders, including political parties, on board. However, there is zero tolerance for terrorism, he added.

He recalled that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in June last year held a meeting with all stakeholders for initiating the Karachi operation without discrimination, ‘with the objective of making the city Pakistan’s financial capital’.

The minister said that work on power projects has begun and by end of 2017 many would start generating energy. The remaining projects under CPEC will come up by 2018.

The government, he said, is simultaneously working on the transmission and distribution system and upgrading it so that it could bear a load beyond 16,000MW.

Work has already started at the Hyderabad-Matiari distribution lines, he added.

He urged the business community to go for value-addition and develop brands for boosting exports.

The minister suggested that like Japan and Malaysia, Pakistani entrepreneurs should go for developing “Brand of Pakistan” by focusing on at least five brands in the leather goods, rice, textile and clothing, sports and surgical goods sectors.

On the occasion, FPCCI president Muhammad Adrees drew the attention of the planning minister towards policy failures. He said that while Pakistan made good policies, it was extremely poor at execution and implementation stages.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2015

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