CPEC's second phase to create employment opportunities for Pakistani youth

ISLAMABAD: A Chinese scholar said that the completion of the second phase projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would bring a huge number of employment opportunities for Pakistani people.

“So far as I know, the first phase of the CEPC has been successfully completed. Now China and Pakistan are committed to comprehensively promoting the development of the second phase projects, he said in a statement as quoted by a state-run news agency.

He further said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan had instructed the relevant ministries to formulate the objectives and ensure coordination so as to complete the second phase projects as soon as possible.”

Commenting over the novel coronavirus, the Chinese scholar said “The outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic in China had never been seen before in terms of severity. Chinese leaders attach great importance to it. The whole nation was now highly united.

About the effects of the epidemic on the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Chinese scholar believed that the epidemic would not last for a long time and the difficulties would be eventually overcome.

Earlier on January 23, Pakistan had categorically rejected the claims of US diplomat Alice Wells that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was finalised in the form of loans or non-concessional financing with sovereign guarantees.

Responding to the queries of media persons at her weekly news briefing in Islamabad regarding US Ambassador Alice Wells recent remarks against the corridor project, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui had clarified that the total CPEC debt is about 4.9 billion dollars which was not even ten per cent of the country’s total debt.

The spokesperson had said that the CPEC is a long term project negotiated through a multi-layered process.