CPEC Development Authority urged for mega project
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ISLAMABAD: (APP) Speakers including development experts here at a Conference on Tuesday called for the establishment of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Development Authority to ensure smooth and timely completion of the mega project.
"CPEC is a huge project which needs full attention, capacity, sincerity and hard work to exploit full potential from the project", Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan Dean School of Economics, National University of Science and Technology (NUST) said while chairing a session of National Conference on CPEC.
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The conference titled "CPEC: Macro and Micro Economic Dividends for Pakistan and the Regions was organized by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF).
He said the CPEC would change the perception of Pakistan outside among the world.
He stressed the need to build human capital, skilled manpower and capacity building special in bureaucracy to attain maximum gains from the project.
Dr Ashfaq Hassan said the CPEC had the potential to change the face of Pakistan as it would contribute extra two per cent in the country's economic growth which would rose to 7-8 per cent in next few years.
He said currently half a million ton goods were being handled by the Gawadar port while this would reach to one million ton by next year.
He informed that by 2030, the Gwadar Port would be handling around 300 to 400 million tones cargo which is a huge quantity if it compared to the US largest port where 80 million ton goods were being handled while the combined capacity of Indian ports is 500 million tones cargo.
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He also highlighted some hurdles in the way of mega project which he said needed to be resolved immediately.
Dr Salman Shah, former Finance Minister said that in a bid to make the mega project of CPEC a big success, Pakistan China economic integration should be brought to the highest level.
He said with the successful completion of CPEC, 500 top Chinese multinational companies would have their bases in Pakistan, 25 million people of the two countries would be visiting each other's countries annually, 25 million new jobs would be created, 100 flights would be operated daily between the two countries, one million Pakistani students would be studying in China and five per cent of Chinese total external trade would be routed through Pakistan.
