Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Khalid Iqbal Malik has lauded the stand of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa for ‘leadership, collaborative spirit and capacity building at a much higher pace and level’ to realise maximum benefits from the opportunities being created by China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it was a right approach to make CPEC a real fate changer for Pakistan.

He also welcomed army chief’s call for an open debate on all aspects of CPEC project. He said that successful materialisation of CPEC was vital for better economic future of Pakistan and stressed that all stakeholder institutions should get fully prepared to achieve optimum benefits to this historic project.

Khalid said that it was encouraging that Pakistan Army was fully cooperating with the government by providing security to ensure timely completion of CPEC project. He said that Pakistan was experiencing a youth bulge and CPEC has offered a great opportunity of employment to our youth.

However, he said that as rightly emphasised by army chief, government should pay greater attention to the education, training and skills development of youth to absorb them in this project.

The ICCI president said that there was an urgent need to review and improve existing laws and regulations in order to remove bottlenecks and facilitate trade, investment and infrastructure development under CPEC.

He said that the last meeting of Pak-China Joint Cooperation Committee (PCJCC) in Beijing had agreed to set up nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Pakistan in the first phase and it was decided that both countries would set up expert groups to deliberate how to build the priority zones.

However, he said Pakistan has not yet formed its expert group while China has already built four special economic zones followed by developing 14 coastal cities on CPEC route in its area.

He stressed that said experts group should be formed as soon as possible to move fast for setting up the exact number and types of special economic zones (SEZs) along the CPEC route.

The ICCI president appreciated the role of Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal for maintaining good liaison with ICCI on CPEC and stressed that the private sector of the country should also be fully taken on board along with ensuring transparency in all its aspects and strong coordination among all stakeholder institutions should be developed.

He said that detail regarding the financing arrangements and the concessions being offered to the Chinese enterprises in CPEC should also be shared to make this project a win-win deal for the country.