Daily Times

Billion Tree Honey Initiative launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan this Monday will be an available and workable project to alleviate poverty and develop the bee products sector as it will lead to broad prospects of Pak-China cooperation in this field, said Yang Rong, Chairman of China Bee Products Association (CBPA), China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Saturday.

Rich natural and human resources have equipped Pakistan favorable conditions to develop the bee products industry. Most of Pakistan’s land is subtropical, which provides a warm climate for vegetating nectariferous plants. Meanwhile, mature agriculture and diverse fruit plantation also lay a foundation for industrial development, Yang analyzed.

He said, the development of the bee products sector, a typical labor-intensive industry will effectively alleviate local poverty in Pakistan. Actually, this method has made fruitful achievements in China

A lot of Chinese local governments have chosen developing apiculture since 2013 and successfully solved poverty even led the regions to prosperity.

Considering the problems of employment and rural revitalization, the mature experiences of China are also suitable for Pakistan.

The apiculture in Pakistan is facing the challenges of pest and obsolete technology which can be solved under Pak-China cooperation.

Bee mite has been reckoned as one of the biggest menaces of Pakistani agriculture. Pakistan tried to import bees and develop apiculture 17 times, but all of those attempts failed due to bee mite.

Yang said, “Nowadays, through scientific breeding, drug treatment, and the most advanced physical treatment, Chinese beekeepers have controlled it very well and at a world leading level.

We can share all of those techniques with Pakistan to improve its apiculture.” “Under CPEC agriculture cooperation, we’d love to share other experiences and techniques with our iron brother as well, such as scale development of apiculture, vegetating nectariferous plants, scientific payoffs, bee species breeding and so on,” he added. China, as the largest bee products producer and consumer in the world, has a full range of mature solutions to develop apiculture.

Pakistan can import from China techniques and production modes, meanwhile export bee products to the Chinese market where bee products including honey, bee milk, bee wax, and especially propolis are in great demands.

“It will stimulate the Pakistani economy, create jobs, and also alleviate local poverty,” he said and added, “CBPA will do its best to promote Pak-China cooperation in apiculture and support Pakistani bee products industry.”

BRI benefits: The China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest Chinese builder, has announced completion of an infrastructure project each in Pakistan and Algeria, two economies that are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

“This marks the construction giant’s efforts to boost regional cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” China Daily reported. According to CSCEC, the Sukkur-Multan Motorway, which is the largest transportation infrastructure project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, was officially handed over to the Pakistani side last week.

The 392-kilometer-long motorway, also known as the M5 motorway in Pakistan, is part of the country’s Peshawar-Karachi Motorway and was designed for speeds of up to 120 km/hour with a total investment of about $2.89 billion.

“The motorway opened to traffic in November last year and has greatly improved traffic conditions and helped drive economic development in central Pakistan,” said Xiao Hua, general manager of the PKM project.

“More than 29,000 jobs were created for the locals in the peak time of construction and the operation of the motorway will be all done by the Pakistani side (from now on),” Xiao said. Apart from the main body of the project, the Chinese constructor also built schools, roads, bridges, wells and water channels for the locals to make their lives more convenient, he said.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects have achieved major progress despite grave economic and health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily quoted Asim Saleem Bajwa, Chairman of the CPEC Authority, as saying.

“After successful completion of the first phase, the CPEC is expanding into its second phase as per schedule despite a very serious setback of COVID-19 around the world, ensuring economic stability and well-being of the people of Pakistan,” Bajwa said while addressing an awarding ceremony for outstanding Pakistani staff of CPEC projects.

In Algeria in northern Africa, CSCEC has helped build an expressway linking Chiffa and Berrouaghia. It is part of the Algeria South-North Expressway project undertaken by CSCEC. The expressway opened to traffic last weekend, passing across the Atlas Mountains and through the Sahara Desert.

With a total length of 53 kilometers, the expressway goes through the Atlas Mountains, which was the “bottleneck” part of the Algeria South-North Expressway, for its extremely high construction difficulties.

In the future, the expressway will also extend further southward to connect Mali, Niger and other countries in Sahil Area. Proposed in 2013, the BRI comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, which aim at building trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.