CPEC projects progressing despite COVID-19 pandemic: PCJCCI president

LAHORE: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects have achieved major progress despite grave economic and health challenges, posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will help Pakistan sustain the emerging economic challenges.

This was stated by Pak-China Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President SM Naveed in a meeting of its think-tank here on Thursday.

FPCCI Senior Vice President Daud Ahmed, Vice President Khalid Raffique Chaudhry, Secretary General Salahuddin Hanif and a number of executive committee members attended the session.

The PCJCCI president said that as the global economy still faces uncertainties amid the pandemic, a more independent, resilient and flexible industrial chain, under CPEC could lay down a strong foundation for the growth of Pakistan's economy.

He said the biggest dividends people of Pakistan are going to witness due to CPEC in the coming days are creation of massive local jobs, transformation of technology, particularly in the newer areas of science and technology, industrialization and agriculture.

He appreciated the government for building more independent and controllable industrial chains to help Pakistan better cope with economic risks amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlighting the weak areas of industries, the joint chamber's SVP Daud Ahmed said that China is helping Pakistan to ensure better implementation of key projects targeting breakthroughs in key technologies and solutions to bottlenecks while encouraging businesses to focus on their areas of strength and forge new cutting-edge technologies.

He added that China's industrial chain is not just to cushion the outbreak's fallout on manufacturing, but a foundation for the both nations to better pursue the new dual-circulation development pattern and foreign markets boosting each other.

The VP Khalid Raffique Choudhry said that China has the world's largest industrial system and efforts to boost the modernization level of industrial chains that will also help Pakistan to become a hub of manufacturing.

The timely implementation of the CPEC projects is one of the manifestations of time-tested friendship between the two countries that even the pandemic could not affect.

While, Salahuddin Hanif said that each country in the world was placing more emphasis on supply chain management in line with the emerging international situations.

The global industrial chain is vastly being reconstructed, which also offers an opportunity for Pakistan to better participate in this formulation process in accordance with international rules, he added.