Govt to set up Pak-China business council

ISLAMABAD: Khusro Bakhtiar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, announced on Saturday that the government has decided to form Pak-China business council, and it has forwarded the names of leading businessmen to the Chinese embassy in this regard.

In a press conference in Islamabad, the minister said the second phase of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is being initiated and the government will constitute a CPEC authority of highly skilled and modernized human resources to upgrade the existing structure for speedy and focused execution of the projects.

He said a bill to this effect will soon be introduced in the parliament.

The two countries have also decided to establish a Pakistan-China Business Council with a view to include people from the private sector to implement industrial and agricultural development projects under the second phase of CPEC, the minister said.

“We are trying to take the focus of the CPEC to the business community level besides the governmental level.”

He informed media that Chinese officials are expected to visit Pakistan in the last week of October.

Talking about the Gwadar Master Plan, Bakhtiar said that it is in the last phase and will be presented soon. “According to the master plan, Gwadar will become a smart port city in the world.”

The project of MLA-1 worth 8.5 billion dollars and it will be completed in three phases, the minister continued.

The foreign minister of Afghanistan proposed a railway track from Mazar Sharif to Peshawar, Bakhtiar mentioned adding that CPEC has projects related to railways among many others.

Four thousand solar systems have arrived in Pakistan from China, he said.