The much-delayed Karachi-Peshawar railway project has found fresh life as both countries consider rekindling business and economic relations through mutually beneficial projects. The $10 billion project’s major goal is to build a rail connection from Karachi to Peshawar while also facilitating the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
Both countries agreed to collaborate and form a coordination committee, which resulted in progress. Mr Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, will go to Beijing on November 1, 2022.
According to the Times of Pakistan, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shahbaz will meet to discuss economic concerns and decide on enhancing security around the mutual CPEC projects spread out across Pakistan to ensure smooth and effective workflow.
As Chinese research centres are developed in Pakistan, technological advancements will be noticed.
Unfortunately, the virtual meeting held in Islamabad on Thursday did not reach the point of signing the meeting minutes during the 11th Joint Cooperation Committee session. During his visit, Pakistan’s Prime Minister is expected to sign the minutes of the JCC meeting.
A few additional initiatives were also discussed at the meeting. Both parties praised the excellent work being done in all of Pakistan’s forums and programmes.
Under Shahbaz Sharif’s leadership, the CPEC has reached the peak of its progressive height among national interests, according to Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Projects, as reported by Times of Pakistan.
The meeting’s basic framework included serious consideration for the progress of CPEC and its relative pace of advancement, the overall security and stability of CPEC, and effective coordination in the business-economy growth involving both China and Pakistan.
Both countries agreed that the largest CPEC project, known as the ML-1 project, should serve as the centre of attention for the overall project. It was determined that the project has been delayed for some time and had to be restarted if the enterprise’s backbone was to be constructed at all.
The recent floods have left some holes in the effective continuation of the developmental phase, therefore the Climate Change department will also join the team as a new member.
The conference also discussed a proposed solar energy plant that would generate 10,000 MWs of energy. Pakistan also asked China to establish a line for the solar energy project to support other projects of the same type.
The rising threat of climatic disasters in Pakistan was appropriately considered. Pakistan will examine the $27 billion in global debt as a member of the group that is in Beijing for upcoming meetings.
Due to recent occurrences and general inflation rates that have contributed to global economic suffering, the government is hopeful of delaying the debt payback deadlines.
After the Prime Minister’s travel to China, further information is expected to be made public.
