IMF director discusses CPEC impact on development of Pakistan

BEIJING: Director International Monetary Fund (IMF) Jihad Azour called on Minister for Interior, Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday and discussed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and its impact on development of Pakistan and the region.

During a meeting held on the sidelines of a high-level conference on Belt and Road Initiative, here Iqbal highlighted that through CPEC the government of Pakistan has been able to address the critical bottle necks of energy and infrastructure in our growth and last year Pakistan had a GDP growth of 5.3 percent and in 2018 the projections are for 5.8 percent.

The government has made heavy investments in energy sector to jump start the growth in the economy. CPEC projects have created thousands of jobs and revived construction and power sector industries.

Pakistan wants strong partnership with multilateral institutions to build regional connectivity projects as regional connectivity holds key to regional peace and prosperity, the minister said.

Pakistan has youth bulge therefore the government is equally investing in human resource development and technology areas, he further said.

Jihad acknowledged the efforts of the government for promoting education, infrastructure improvement and poverty alleviation. He highlighted the need to jointly work on the areas for capacity enhancement of local human resource under the BRI initiative.

The minister planning highlighted the need to promote business with business cooperation under BRI and overcoming knowledge gaps about Chinese industry, trade and financial system by all stakeholders.