Lijian Zhao, Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counsellor at Chinese Embassy said that admitted that disqualification of Nawaz Sharif has affected the coordination for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In an interview with the daily newspaper ‘The News” Zhao said that “Political stability is a must for economic development,”
Answering to a question about the impact of Nawaz removal on CPEC. Zhao said “It will not be correct to say CPEC was not affected at all by the change of the prime minister. However to say it was affected grossly will also be a wrong statement as projects on grounds remained unaffected,”
Zhao further clarified that although Nawaz Sharif has been removed but his party was still in the government which showed stability of the system. Lijian Zhao said the two countries had resumed normal coordination and 50th review meeting of CPEC projects was held last week which was attended by senior officials of all related Pakistani ministries from the Centre and provinces and also by Chinese companies and embassy officials.
To another question, the Chinese diplomat said so far not a single incident of corruption had been observed in projects being carried out under CPEC. Lijian Zhao said his country was closely monitoring CPEC projects to ensure they were graft free and current Chinese leadership was very strict regarding corruption.
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Misinformation about “mega corruption” scam worth Rs1.8 billion in Multan Metro project was spread last month by some quarters but later it was revealed that the company mentioned in the fake scam had nothing to do with the project and it did not earn a penny from Pakistan.
In fact, a thorough probe by Chinese regulatory authority revealed that Jiangsu Yabaite Technology Co Ltd, a listed company in China wrongly used name of Pakistan and some other countries to manipulate its stocks in China. “Yabaite lied about investment and profits in many countries to artificially raise its share prices in China for which it was probed and punished by the Chinese counterpart of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP),” the diplomat said.
The diplomat said CPEC offers a win-win solution for both Pakistan and China.
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“Two major bottlenecks in Pakistan’s economic prosperity are energy shortage and lack of infrastructure and CPEC addresses both of them paving the way for a brighter future for the country. On the other hand for Beijing, CPEC offers regional connectivity and legitimate profit for Chinese investment companies,” Lijian Zhao said.
He said before CPEC there was up to 12-hour loadshedding in Pakistan which had reduced to a couple of hours now and would soon be completely over. “After a few years Pakistan will face a different problem; how to deal with surplus energy? The country will be able to choose its option to sell extra electricity,” he said joyfully.
In addition there will be at least 60,000 jobs directly related to CPEC while countless other jobs will be created as a result of economic activity generated by the corridor, said the diplomat.
