Daily Times

Pak-China international cooperation yielded fruitful result in 2020, says a White Paper issued here. According to Gwadar Pro, the State Council Information Office of China published a White Paper on “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era”. The White Paper includes multi-field international cooperation and frequently mentions Pak-China cooperation in 2020. The paper summarizes China’s recent engagement in providing development assistance and lays out China’s strategy and areas of future development assistance.

The respects which are also closely concerned by Pakistan, such as debt relief, poverty reduction, infrastructure improvement, energy transformation, and food crisis alleviation, were emphasized in the paper. As pet the White Paper, in 2020, China has continued a steady increase in the scale of its international development cooperation, giving high priority to the least developed countries in Asia and Africa and developing countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

China has held over 4,000 training sessions for officials from participating countries on Belt and Road. For example, on the conference of Pakistan’s vision of a new Pakistan, participants of the programs discussed and planned jointly on ways to link CPEC with regional and national initiatives. In terms of infrastructure, China supports Belt and Road participants in infrastructure connectivity projects to revive the ancient Silk Road.

To support CPEC and promote overland trade between the two countries, China participated in the upgrading and expansion of the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway and the Karakoram Highway. To meet the increasing needs of air transport, China has assisted Pakistan in upgrading and expanding our airports, thereby improving operational capacity and safety, increasing the passenger and cargo throughput, promoting local tourism, facilitating cross-border passenger and trade flow, and bringing more opportunities for their integration with the Belt and Road Initiative.

To improve people’s lives, CPEC provided over 2,000 free cataract surgeries in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Youth exchange and talent training under CPEC also were praised in the White Paper. In order to improve agro-productivity, China provided timely aid during locust plagues to help restore agricultural production in Pakistan and cultivate agricultural research and technical personnel for our nation.

The White Paper concluded that the future of China closely relates to the fortunes of other countries, and China binds the interests of the Chinese people to the common interests of all people. China will stay true to its original principles regarding international development cooperation. It pointed out that China has always demonstrated a spirit of internationalism and humanitarianism, and promised development based on shared interests, mutual benefits and inclusiveness. Without a doubt – the world needs more of that,” says Christoph Nedopil, Director Green Belt and Road Initiative Center at International Institute for Green Finance, the paper added.