CPEC to open new avenues of progress in various sectors: IIUI President
Islamabad: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will open new avenues of progress in various sectors such as energy, railways and engineering that would ultimately result in improvement of economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), President, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) Dr Hathal Homoud Alotaibi said.
Addressing the concluding ceremony of a two-day international conference on ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Building Narratives’ organized by Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue (IRD), of IIUI here at Quaid-e-Azam Auditorium, he mentioned that the CPEC was a vital project that would bring economic development in region and would prove a source of promoting prosperity between the two countries.
Talking about the IIUI’s future, he said through strategic plan and reforms, the university had been put on the corridor of progress and success.
Dr Alotaibi maintained that talented and hardworking officials and students would be encouraged and awards for the best teacher, best researcher, best employee and best academic program would be introduced in future.
The IIUI president, stressing the need of conducting such more conferences, hailed the efforts of IRD. He urged the youth to keep contributing to the country’s progress. He added that students were the future of the country and they must be provided with an ideal learning environment.
Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal, Dean of the faculty of Social Sciences in his address said that it was the age of narratives and there was a dire need to address the perception about CPEC with the help of actual facts, stats and realities.
He urged for more research adding that presence of ample research literature would help building the counter narratives.
He pointed out optimized and simplified versions of propaganda against CPEC and called for establishment of research centers and think tanks to evaluate the hyped propaganda and build a true narrative based on facts.
In his address, Dr Husnul Amin, Executive Director IRD explained aims and objectives of the conference. He said recommendations of the conference would be shared to all the relevant forums of research and legislation.
Amin underscored the need to discuss multifaceted issues of CPEC and added that academia’s part that it must build a balanced and factual narrative on this important topic. He also elaborated the role and activities of IRD in promoting research and dialogue.
The conference was organized by IRD in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences that was attended by eminent national and international experts in economics, sociology and mass media.
In different sessions of the conference, around 50 national and international experts, researchers, academicians and intellectuals discussed various aspects of CPEC’s regional and global impact.
