ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on China Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) was informed on Thursday that the government had not sharedany document relating to CPEC with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Briefing the meeting, Secretary Planning Zafar Hassan said “Neitherministry of Planning nor finance has shared any such document of CPEC withthe Fund”.
Chairperson of the committee, Senator Sherry Rehman said the government’sstatement was in contradiction to some media reports which stated that thegovernment had shared details of debt incurred on account of CPEC projectsbesides other sensitive information.
“I am stating on record that no such information had been shared with IMF”,Zafar Hassan stressed.
Sherry Rehman directed the ministry that there should be no ambiguity withrespect to the CPEC projects and transparency in all projects must beensured.
Minister for Planning and Development Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar on theoccasion said the Senate panel should play role in economic development ofthe country by embarking upon such agendas and ideas which could motivatethe government machinery to work diligently for the country.
He said the senate committee should look into issues through the prism ofnational interest rather than paying heed to the false media reports.
The minister informed that so far, the government to government loans underCPEC were only $6 billion while the rest were either commercial loans orwere under Independent Power Producers (IPP) mode.
He pointed out that the government was now focusing on developing businessto business contacts with China to promote public private partnership inthe country.
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In order to boost the country’s exports, the minister said specialincentive packages would be offered to specially the Internationalinvestors.
He informed that as many as 70,000 direct jobs had been created so farunder various CPEC projects while the National Vocational TechnicalTraining Center (NAVTTC) was doing a great job in preparing thousands ofskilled workforce required for second phase of CPEC industrial sector.
With regard to Special Economic Zones, Khusro Bakhtyar said ideally Dhabejiand Gwadar SEZs should be the main focus as it was the Internationalpractice that where there was economic activity, development was alsofocused on those areas.
He said up-gradation of Railway Main Line (ML-1) was an important projectunder second phase of CPEC, which after completion would help safe,economically viable and speedy transportation of goods from North to South.
He said a railway connection between Mazar Shareef in Afghanistan andPeshawar was also under consideration.
Talking about Gwadar Master Plan, the minister said the Gwadar Master Planwould be finalized by end of next month.
