Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday announced plans to launch the next phase of the multi-billion dollar CPEC at the high-profile 2nd Belt and Road Forum (BRF) here as Beijing and Islamabad pressed ahead with the controversial project despite India's protests over sovereignty concerns.
Khan was one of the main speakers of the BRF meeting aimed at highlighting China's multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in which the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is officially designated as the flagship project.
The BRF, in which 37 heads of states and governments are taking part, was skipped by India over its objections to the CPEC. The US, which has in recent years emerged as a strong critic of the BRI alleging that it involved predatory financing leaving smaller countries in heavy, unsustainable debt, also stayed out of it.
Khan's government itself was reported to have planned to cut down some of the CPEC projects soon after it came to power owing to concerns related to debt burden.
Addressing the BRF, Khan said in a world of geopolitical uncertainty, rising inequality and barriers to trade, the BRI offers a model of collaboration, partnership, connectivity and shared prosperity.
Pakistan has been among one of the BRI's earliest and most enthusiastic proponents, and CPEC is one of the major components and one of its earliest manifestations and it has made substantial progress, he said.
Skirting India's criticism of the CPEC as well as its objections, Khan said that the CPEC has helped in Pakistan's progress specially filling the critical infrastructure gaps.
"The presence of so many world leaders today is proof that we choose hope over despair and cooperation over confrontation. 122 states and 49 international organisations have signed on to the BRI's vision and this is historic and monumental development.
"Together, Pakistan and China are entering the next phase of the CPEC, with greater emphasis on socioeconomic uplift, poverty alleviation, agricultural cooperation and industrial development," he said.
Both the countries are signing an expanded Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement, he said. He also mooted cooperation among the countries signed up to the BRI climate change cooperation.
In the last five years, Pakistan successfully planted five billion trees in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, he said, adding that Pakistan has launched a nationwide project to plant 10 billion trees in the next five years.
He suggested that there should be some joint and ambitious projects of planting trees among the BRI countries to mitigate climate change.
He also suggested the establishment of BRI tourism corridor to promote people-to-people contacts, inter-cultural understanding and most importantly to establish anti-corruption cooperation to combat the scourge of white collar crime.
Khan has also mooted the creation of a poverty alleviation fund. Khan also thanked China and its leadership for the unwavering support to Pakistan.
The deep-rooted friendship, partnership and brotherhood with China remain strong, resilient and unbreakable, he added. China is holding the BRF, which provides a platform to countries participating in the BRI, from April 25 to 27 here.
The BRI is a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.
