(Staff Report):_
The 11th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was convened on Monday afternoon as a follow-up to the visit of Pakistani Federal Minister for Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, to China. During the meeting, both parties expressed satisfaction with the progress of CPEC projects.
An official statement said the Sequel to Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s visit to China and meeting with Li Chunlin, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Beijing on Wednesday the 5th April 2023, a follow up progress review meeting to discuss important CPEC projects and minutes of 11th JCC meeting has been held on 10th April 2023, at CPEC Secretariat, Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives Islamabad.
Nadeem Javaid Chief Economist CPEC from Pakistan and his Chinese counterpart Pan Jiang, Director General National Cooperation Department of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) co-chaired the same while senior officials from Ministries of Planning, Energy, Industry, Communication, Agriculture, Interior, Science and Technology, IT&T, Board of Investment attended the meeting.
Both sides expressed satisfaction over the smooth implementation of various CPEC projects and agreed that all the pending issues will be resolved amicably in the spirit of traditional cooperation, mutual understanding, complete trust & brotherhood.
Both sides expressed satisfaction over the progress made in the four priority Special Economic Zones (SEZs) namely Rashakai, Allama Iqbal Industrial City, Dhabeji & Bostan SEZs and agreed to further expedite the progress so as to attract relocation of high quality industries. Signing of Framework Agreement for Industrial Cooperation was highly appreciated and both sides committed to hold bi-annual meetings to review the implementation of framework. Mr Nadeem also requested strong support of NDRC and other relevant Chinese government institutions to advance implementation of important projects like ML-1, KRC and key energy projects in line with the leadership consensus. It may be noted that Year 2023 marks the Decade of CPEC and the strong partnership between Pakistan and China.
Accordingly, both Pakistan and China are celebrating 10 Years of BRI and CPEC on 5th July 2023 whereby high level Chinese delegations are scheduled to visit Pakistan to witness the achievements made since inception of CPEC.
In order to make the 10 years’ celebrations memorable, both sides expressed desire to sign 11th JCC minutes of meeting before end of April 2023 so that relevant Technical Joint Working Groups (JWGs) could then hold their meetings by mid of May 2023 and workout the tangible outcomes for the 12th JCC Meeting; being planned to be held in first week of July 2023 in Islamabad.
