Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and other regional countries will benefit from CPEC: Chairman FCCI standing committee on R&D

Faisalabad: Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and other regional countries will benefit from the mega China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Engineer Ahmad Hassan, Chairman Faisalabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCI)’s standing committee on Research and Development (R&D) said.

Addressing a meeting at FCCI here, he remarked that Pakistan was blessed with a geo-strategic position connecting several sub-regions of Asia and the Arabian Sea.

He emphasized that CPEC had emerged as the most vibrant political and economic block with the ultimate objective to weed out poverty and bring prosperity in the third world countries linked with it.

Hassan said that Pakistan’s immediate neighbour Afghanistan had no access to sea and the 17 years conflict has slowed down its economy. “The central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are also landlocked countries but with abundance of natural resources,” he stressed.

He underscored that with CPEC and its synergies with other existing regional connectivity projects, both regions could have the opportunity to work together to expand economic ties and overcome fiscal and energy deficits.

He underlined that CPEC was the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that has not only enhanced Pakistan’s importance to Asia, but also promotes regional connectivity in central and south Asia.

Hassan noted that the One Belt One Road (OBOR) and CPEC had created multiple opportunities for regional connectivity by involving various states in development projects that could benefit all parties.

“In the next years and decades, this region comprising China and the other participant states in the OBOR initiative might become a separate economic bloc directly linked with the growing Chinese economy,” he added.