ISLAMABAD, September 03 (DNA): China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered into full implementation and is making smooth progress in general.The CPEC covered such wide-ranging areas as energy, roads, railways, ports, optic fiber, oil and gas pipelines and industrial parks, among others.

According to a senior Chinese diplomat who personally visited many CPEC projects such as Port Qasim Coal-powered Plant and Gwadar projects, shared that the Chinese enterprises were advancing the projects with high quality and standard.

He said, the Chinese engineers were working with high professionalism, great tenacity and sincere devotion.

He informed that the ground-breaking ceremonies were successfully held for Karot Hydropower project which was the first Silk road Fund financed project and M4 (Shorkot-Khanewal Section) national motorway project which was the AIIB funded project.

These projects would surely help Pakistan to promote the development of energy and transportation infrastructure, he added.

He said, CPEC was a broad framework of cooperation and is facing Pakistan as a whole.

The Chinese government encouraged qualified and competent enterprises to make investment in Pakistan and explore opportunities of industrial cooperation, technology and development etc.

He said CPEC was also about project of livelihood. It was aimed to bring tangible benefits to the people and give the people more sense of ownership.

The projects under construction had created tens of thousands of job opportunities for Pakistani people.

With the further advance of CPEC, it will continue to create more job and training opportunities and provide better health and education services for Pakistani people, he said.

While appreciating Pakistan’s efforts to protect the CPEC projects and personnel, he said, “We look forward to creating a safe and sound environment for CPEC along with the Pakistan side.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013.

It provides the important network and platform of win-win cooperation among the countries along the Belt and Road regions.

The CPEC is a major and pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Punjab is to benefit most from the projects starting under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), statistics shared with the Parliament revealed.

At present, 53 per cent of the total projects are being assigned to Punjab. The provincial government has deployed 6,346 security personnel for the protection of 3,754 Chinese nationals.

According to official statistics, out of the total of 330 projects under CPEC, 176 are in Punjab while only eight projects have been allocated for Balochistan.

In a written reply to a question, raised by Shahida Rehmani in the National Assembly, regarding the security measures taken by the Ministry of Interior for the protection of Chinese personnel it was stated that a total of 16,703 security personnel were deployed for the protection of 8,819 Chinese nationals.

In his written reply, the Minister of Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan provided a breakdown and stated that 6,346 security personnel were deployed in Punjab for the security of 3,754 Chinese nationals while 3,134 personnel had been deployed in Balochistan for the security of 558 Chinese nationals.

As many as 1,912 security personnel have been deployed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to provide protection to 698 Chinese nationals, working on the 19 projects in the province. Meanwhile, 2, 645 personnel have been deployed in Sindh as security arrangement for protection of 1,141 Chinese nationals. The province will have 103 projects under the CPEC agreement.

Six projects have been allocated to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) for which 439 personnel of the law enforcement agencies have been deployed for the protection of 885 Chinese personnel.

The lower house was further informed that a Special Security Division (SSD), consisting of nine composite Infantry Battalions and six Civil Armed Forces (CAF) Wings, had been constituted at a cost of Rs21.57 billion, which will provide security to the Chinese nationals.

Provision of security to citizens of Pakistan as well as to foreigners is the administrative, legal and constitutional responsibility of the provincial governments, it said, adding that the provincial governments were duly assisted by the armed forces. DNA

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