ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday reviewed progress over the next 11th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting to be held at the end of this month.
The meeting was attended by the secretary Planning Commission, secretary Communication, executive director China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and representatives from various ministries.
During the pre-CPEC JCC meeting, major deliverable projects were discussed in length which will be taken up in the up-coming JCC meeting.
During a meeting, the representatives from information technology informed relevant ministers that both countries decided to set up six sub-working groups on communication technology infrastructure, application innovation, policy and regulation, HR development, cyber security, and radio spectrum regulation.
It was also proposed that the Pak-China Technology Business Forum will be formally established during the JCC meeting.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would visit China later this week and the 11th JCC will have a significance since the incumbent government has already revived CPEC projects which remained neglected during the last four years of the PTI’s tenure.
During the meeting, several projects in various sectors such as energy, transport, information technology, socio-economic development, industrial cooperation, science and technology, transport infrastructure and international cooperation were discussed. The respective ministries shared their deliverable proposals of projects after conducting their Joint Working Groups (JWGs) to be taken up in JCC with the Chinese authorities.
The minister directed the Power Division to expedite the approval process of energy policy for Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) so that already agreed projects for GB could be pushed forward. He said that Chinese authorities have shown great interest in the mining sector and directed the concerned ministry to make a tangible proposal in this regard. “The Chinese are ready to set-up a working group on the mining sector therefore, we must give them some tangible proposals,” said the minister, while stressing the ministries to make a concrete plan rather than a business-as usual approach.
The minister further directed that the development and production facility of solar panels for domestic use as well as export may be considered for inclusion in the agenda of the meeting.
The minister also directed the concerned ministries to focus on the long-term plans as well so projects could be operationalised.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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