Pakistan-China Institute (PCI), a non-governmental organisation devoted to Pakistan-China relations and the region, Thursday launched Friends of Silk Road as a platform to bring people from the regional countries together. PCI Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that Friends of Silk Road is a major initiative and given Pakistan's pivotal role in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC) as well as long-standing relationship with China, which is now elevated from all-weather friendship to being "iron brothers."
He said that Pakistan is the first among the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries to launch the forum which would include local communities, parliamentarians, press, business and opinion leaders, youth and women, professionals and civil society, students and scholars.
"The forum will provide both a better understanding and information about benefits of the fruits of progress and development offered by the numerous opportunities arising out of the BRI through CPEC," he added.
He said that thanks to CPEC that there is not only a turnaround in the image of Pakistan but its role is emerging as a major hub of regional connectivity, adding the region that constitutes Pakistan at present had been a part of the ancient Silk Road 2000 years ago and at present the CPEC is the centrepiece of the New Silk Road.
He said that Friends of Silk Road will be sharing stories, experiences, and examples of progress, development and friendship between the peoples of Pakistan and China, infused with the spirit of the Silk Road that is driving progress in the 21st century.
Friends of Silk Road will be a major platform to build upon the success of BRI and its flagship project CPEC and its broad mandate including promoting awareness about how the BRI through CPEC is changing lives for the better of the people of Pakistan. It will promote the Spirit of Silk Road based on cooperation, mutual benefit and people-to-people understanding, strengthening friendship via corridors, culture and connectivity.
Sayed said that CPEC represents a new height in Sino-Pak strategic ties and ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, this has emerged as the most significant and developmental initiative of the 21st century.
The BRI currently involves over 65 countries, comprising 70 percent of the world's population, 55 percent of the global GDP and nearly 25 percent of global trade. Five trillion US dollars are expected to be spent for infrastructure in the BRI countries in the next decade, he said.
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