Daily Times

Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said Pakistan would follow the Chinese model of economic development, which he said was a miracle of modern times.

According to the Chinese, modern economic development is possible only with the continuation of political stability, social solidarity and economic policies; Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal said this while addressing China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Green Development, High Level Dialogue organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here. The Minister said that Pakistan has always lacked political stability and continuity in economic policies due to which economic development has not been possible.

Ahsan Iqbal said that in the year 2020 China’s industrial relocation was to take place and ” We did not have the infrastructure to benefit from this change.” During this period, China’s Industrial units were shifted to Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries.

The Minister said that in 2013, the government of Pakistan started Special Economic work on nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC but during the previous regime,” We could not complete even one of them.” If these SEZs were completed, China’s industrial relocation would have taken place in Pakistan today, he said.

Ahsan Iqbal said that in 2013, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was started by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for bringing the $46b investment in infrastructure and energy projects. On this occasion, he said that China and Pakistan have agreed to work together on a green economy.

He said that the current leadership of China believes in environment-friendly industrial development and in the future, they were giving special importance to environment-friendly policies in new projects. He said that Pakistan and China were starting work on several green energy projects which would help in improving the environment.

Ahsan said that most of the solar and wind energy projects would start a new era of sustainable economic development in the country. He said that anti-environment industrial development had also played a role in spoiling the environment in the world and Pakistan had also suffered from this. “Today Pakistan Is among the five major countries affected by environmental crises”, he said.

Talking to media persons on the occasion, Ahsan Iqbal criticized the CPEC Authority and said that not a single dollar had been invested in this project after the creation of this authority. Earlier, an investment of $29b dollars had come in the CPEC project. That is why now “we are going to the mechanism followed from 2013 to 2019 so that this project can be implemented in a good way.” He said that China had agreed to bring more investment in this project.