CPEC under BRI has helped build Pakistan’s infrastructure and new information highway: Planning Minister

Islamabad: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was the biggest project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Pakistan that had helped build Pakistan’s infrastructure and built a new information highway.

Addressing the closing ceremony of a two-day international conference on Productivity Accreditation and Certification, organized by National Productivity Organization (NPO) on the occasion of Asian Productivity Organization (APO)’s Diamond Jubilee, the minister stressed that the CPEC and BRI were aimed at bringing a revolution in the region.

He regretted that due to domestic hurdles the CPEC projects could not keep up with the speed in Pakistan as it was planned and the establishment of industrial zones was delayed consequently.

The minister pledged that the work on CPEC projects had been accelerated and the projects will be completed on time.

While commenting on the Global Initiative Dialogue, the minister noted that the dialogue offered ample opportunities to understand the global dynamics on global security adding that a country where political instability and discontinuity of policies prevailed could not tread the path of progress and prosperity.

He opined that Pakistan desperately needed measures to bring the country’s economy out of crisis through sustainable export led economic growth.

“The sustainable economic growth is possible only through increasing productivity that leads to more exports and higher economic growth,” he told the audience.

Ahsan Iqbal lamented that Pakistan had been facing sheer foreign exchange reserves and balance of payment crisis for long time due to slow growth in exports.

“Whenever we cross 6 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth, the government faces dollar shortage issue due to which we have to put emergency brake on the economic growth to resolve the balance of payment crisis,” he added.

Ahsan Iqbal underlined that the sustainable economic development of the country was directly linked to political stability and continuity in the policies.

He said that only in agriculture sector, Pakistan could earn additional US $10 to $ 12 billion per year by increasing per acre yield of various crops up to 80 percent to 300%, and this increase was quite possible by adopting international standards of growing the crops.