Long-term CPEC plan to be approved in Beijing: Pakistan

Pakistan Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that a long-term plan for the CPEC will be approved by the Joint Cooperation Council at its meeting scheduled for November 21 in Beijing.

He announced this while presiding over a meeting held here on Wednesday to review implementation of the ongoing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and preparations for the future projects to be made part of the long-term plan, Dawn news reported.

Iqbal, who is also the Planning and Development Minister, directed all the stakeholders and provincial governments to firm up their projects and explore further options of mutual interest to be taken up at the seventh Joint Cooperation Council (JCC) meeting.

This is the same long-term plan that Iqbal had said would be finalised during the One Belt, One Road Summit in May.

When asked whether or not the plan would be made public following its approval by the JCC in November, the minister said: "Yes".

The 51st progress review meeting on the CPEC projects was attended by senior officials of line ministries and representatives of provincial governments, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Gilgit-Baltistan and Jammu and Kashmir and officials of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, including charge d'affaires Zhao Lijian.

The JCC is the apex decision-making forum on the CPEC that is jointly chaired by the Planning and Development Minister and the vice chairman of National Development and Reform Commission of China.

--IANS

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