China, Pakistan to expand CPEC cooperation
World | November 06, 2019 8:42 ISTThe two sides also signed and exchanged cooperation documents on health, youth exchanges and Gwadar Port development.
The two sides also signed and exchanged cooperation documents on health, youth exchanges and Gwadar Port development.
President Arif Alvi promulgated an ordinance to set up the CPEC Authority on the eve of Prime Minister Imran Khan's trip to China to discuss investment opportunities.
Prime minister Khan will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday on a two-day visit to China, Pakistan's all-weather ally, during which he would meet the country's top leadership, including President Xi Jinping, and discuss issues of regional and bilateral significance.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will attract trade, investment and technology from China to Pakistan so as to help boost his country's future development.
The cabinet had considered a summary submitted by the Interior Division on May 16, 2019, and granted approval in principle as a one-time dispensation to Chinese nationals to change their visit visas into work visas.
General Bajwa, 58, who was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in November 2016, was to retire in November, but Prime Minister Imran Khan extended his term for another three years in view of the "regional security environment". The decision was taken amid fresh tension in India-Pakistan relations and the ongoing Afghan peace talks between the US and the Taliban militants, facilitated by Islamabad.
There have been security concerns about projects being undertaken as part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor inside Pakistan. CPEC is part of China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The USD 60 billion CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of the multi-million dollar Border and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013.
A shootout was underway at Zaver Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar when this story was published. Pakistani media has said that all foreign and local guests at the 5-star hotel have been safely evacuated.
The map was hosted on Chinese government’s Ministry of Commerce’s website displaying routes under China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative.
China on Monday refuted criticism that the USD 60 billion CPEC has intensified Pakistan's economic risks, saying that less than 20 per cent of the current projects under the initiative are using Chinese loans.
India boycotted the first Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in 2017 after protesting to Beijing over the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) overriding New Delhi's sovereignty concerns.
China's Belt and Road aims to connect Europe, Asia, and Africa through a wide network of roads, highways, sea lanes and ports. Its jewel project, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), cuts through Jammu and Kashmir.
It has requested China to formally delete the project from the CPEC list.
Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said this at the weekly media briefing here on Thursday when asked about a US media report that alleged that China has hatched a secret plan to build fighter jets and other military hardware in Pakistan as part of the USD 60 billion project.
The Islamabad datelined report in the New York Times said Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials were putting the final touches to the secret proposal.
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Cash-strapped Pakistan has formally approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package as it reeled under serious economic crisis.
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