Sharif launches CPEC trade cargo shipment in Balochistan

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a ceremony on Sunday launched trade cargo shipment from Balochistan's Gwadar port, a key project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Sharif marked the departure of the first major trade cargo from Gwadar port by emphasising Pakistan's commitment to China's One Belt-One Road initiative.

"We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the CPEC and all the projects under its umbrella are materialised within the given time," the Prime Minister said, Dawn reported.

"This idea was conceived only two years ago, and this day marks the breaking of the dawn of a new era."

"CPEC is for entire Pakistan and no region or province will be left out of it," Sharif said, in an apparent attempt at putting to rest the reservations of smaller provinces that claim the project does not benefit them.

"The newly-constructed roads in Balochistan have opened up new areas that were inaccessible and deprived of development... and have brought peace to a volatile region," he said.

"The government of Balochistan and the army have been successful in making the local population a stakeholder in development... Development can never be sustainable if it creates islands of properity. It must reach the lives of those who have remained mired in a trap of poverty and backwardness," he said.

CPEC will help integrate South Asia, China and Central Asia and offer opportunities for people in this region, and investors all over the world, Sharif said.

--IANS

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