CPEC projects: planning minister to visit Gwadar after Eid to review progress

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal will visit Gwadar soon after Eid to review the progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

The minister would also meet the heads of Chinese companies working on the CPEC projects in the next week to listen to their problems so that the bottlenecks can be removed to streamline their working.

The minister on Friday visited the CPEC Authority Secretariat where Executive Director CPEC Qammar Sarwar Abbasi, gave a briefing to the minister over the so far progress in executing the projects which is a game changer for the region.

Gwadar is one of the central points in the CPEC and it has a huge impact on the country.

“Soon after Eid-ul-Fitr, I will visit Gwadar to personally review the projects of CPEC and my top priority is to expedite all the pending projects which remained on slow pace”, said the minister while chairing the meeting.

The minister will also inaugurate the installation of Solar Project Generation System for households in various parts of Gwadar. The project was launched by the Chinese companies in the city to support the poor household.

During the meeting, the minister directed the executive director, CPEC to invite all Chinese companies working on CPEC projects.

“I want to meet them next week to listen to their problems, so that bottlenecks can be removed to streamline their working”.

The minister also directed to ensure foolproof security of the Chinese working on various projects and issues pertaining to their visas will be resolved on a priority basis through the Ministry of Interior.

The minister further stressed that working relations with line ministries should be streamlined to give them greater ownership of the CPEC projects.

He said that the government officials played a very active and positive role in realising US 29 billion dollars investment under the CPEC. Unfortunately, the previous government created an atmosphere of intimidation which took away the initiative of government officials. The new government will restore the confidence of government officials, he added.

The CPEC Authority was established by the previous government amid great controversy. The Authority is dysfunctional due to duplication in role with line ministries.

During the briefing, ED CPEC Qamar Abbasi informed the minister that so far, 940 solar generation systems have been installed for households and a total of 3,000 panels will be installed in order to facilitate the residents.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022