Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Reforms Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said that government is making efforts to include the youth in the development narrative for sustainable progress of the country. Minister stated while talking to students of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa studying in various universities in Islamabad and briefed them about the benefits of China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) for the two provinces.
He said that it is the time of geo-economics and those countries having strong and flourishing economies are destined to survive and those having weak economic foundations are bound to loose their sovereignty when he recalled the dismemberment of USSR because of economic ills the superpower of the past had despite having a strong military. Ahsan said that present government has documented vision 2025 to carrying out inclusive development in the country by developing all the regions equally and said that for it internal cohesiveness is the need of the hour.
Minister emphasised that youth of the country should focus its energies for economic narrative because it is the time of economic ideology and economic prosperity. He termed CPEC a window of opportunity that would bring socio-economic development in the country particularly in two least developed provinces Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said that 46 billion dollar investment is an extra ordinary gesture from China at a time when Pakistan was not receiving substantial investment from other countries.
Briefing about development of Gwadar he said that apart from sea port, various development projects like Gwadar Airport, technical institutions and hospitals would be built in the port city for its socio-economic development. Minister said that due to policies of present government, a visible change has been seen in the law & order situation of Balochistan and said that it would improve further with the passage of time.
About the consensus achieved at All Parties Conference on CPEC, Ahsan said that whole the leadership demonstrated political maturity to benefit from multi-billion mega project and said as agreed in APC, western route would be completed first for which December 2016 is the deadline.
He said that consensus reached in APC is the starting point for making the Pakistan economic superpower and said that future economic development would be sustainable because it would be inclusive by incorporating all the regions. Minister told the students that CPEC is a portfolio investment project, which includes infrastructure, energy, Gawadar airport and economic zones project. The joint working group for economic zones would be formed in July and provinces would be asked to identify feasible sites for setting up of such projects.-PR
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