China's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming said that Pak-China economic partnership is a best demonstration of Belt and Road's initiative (BRI). The CPEC has set the pace of global connectivity plan's implementation under the BRI, Chinese envoy stated this while speaking at the launch-event of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Belt and Road Initiative and CPEC held at House of Commons.
According to the Chinese media's reports, the event was arranged by Faisal Rashid, Member of Parliament and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the BRI and CPEC. The ambassador told the audience that the CPEC is a $62 billion connectivity project envisioned to stretch from the western Chinese city of Kashgar to Pakistan's port of Gwadar, located near Iran and the Persian Gulf shipping routes that are a major component of the broader Belt and Road Initiative.
"The CPEC's projects have created 70,000 jobs directly for the local communities and are expected to generate another 700,000 from 2017 to 2030," Liu said. "They will add 11,000 megawatts to Pakistan's electricity supply in the coming years." The group, he hoped "to be a platform for engagement and education, and a place to have discussions, share opinions and make connections."
He added: "China's Belt and Road Initiative which plans to invest as much as $8 trillion in infrastructure projects in 78 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia is one of the world's most ambitious development programmes. The overarching objective of the initiative is to further regional integration and stimulate regional development through connectivity." Liu highlighted the CPEC as positive example of bilateral cooperation. Nine CPEC projects have been completed and 13 are under construction, including in four key areas: ports, energy, transport infrastructure and industrial cooperation.
He said, the BRI, is a "chorus" rather than a "one-man show," a platform for win-win cooperation rather than a tool to "put one's own country first." Liu Xiaoming said: "The Belt and Road Initiative is not about one country having it all to itself. It is about making the pie bigger and sharing it among all the BRI partners."