ISLAMABAD: Beijing and Islamabad will work together to make China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other bilateral development projects transparent and free of corruption, the assistant minister of National Bureau of Corruption Prevention said on Tuesday.

Briefed newsmen, Liu Jianchao said both the countries would soon sign an agreement aimed at ensuring transparency in the implementation of CPEC, “which is an important part of China’s One Belt One Road initiative”.

The Chinese minister said that he also held meetings with National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) chairman and other Pakistani officials and shared Chinese experience against corruption.

Terming the economic corridor the most important project in Sino-Pak bilateral relations, he said there was a need to make all possible efforts for its success.

Mr Jianchao, who earlier had served his country as assistant foreign minister and took the new assignment two months back, gave details of the ongoing efforts making the Chinese society free of corruption. He gave credit to leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, especially Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The CPEC would be a symbol of good governance, as it would be clean and transparent,” he said.

He said that under the law, it was forbidden for any Chinese business company to get itself involved in corruption, while carrying out development projects. However, both sides would work closely to prevent, detect and control corruption in all the projects, he added.

The leadership of both countries attached great importance to CPEC and wanted to make it successful at all costs, he said. This project would contribute a lot to promote peace and development, not only in the two countries but also in the region.

He said China had adopted a policy of zero tolerance against corruption and several people found committing corruption had been punished. There were over 150 top government officials who had faced serious punishment for corrupt practices.

He said there were about 600 corrupt Chinese officials who had fled abroad and the government succeeded in bringing them back and punished them under the law.

The Chinese minister said that more than 230,000 corrupt people were investigated and out of them 90pc were punished during the last three years.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015