Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said on Thursday that Chinese investment in Pakistan is increasing and at the same time there is a need for safeguards for investors.
The Planning Minister was addressing a press conference in Islamabad after the 10th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). JCC meeting was to be held in July, but the meeting was postponed ten incident In which many Chinese citizens were killed.
Omar said that during the JCC meeting, both the Chinese and Pakistani sides “specially mentioned and emphasized” the issue of security. “The need and importance of security is growing with increasing Chinese investment in Pakistan,” he said. He said that the scope of CPEC is expanding and industrial investment is coming.
The federal minister said both sides expressed grief over the Dasu incident and sympathized with the families of the victims and reaffirmed their intention to catch the culprits at the earliest and punish them in court.
Omar said a very “robust” action plan was drawn up last month to further enhance security measures, noting that a special cell had been set up in the interior ministry for this purpose. “This cell is not specifically China-specific but [for the security of all] Foreigners working in Pakistan,” he said.
The planning minister said the CPEC is the target of some powers in the world “especially our eastern neighbor whom it stings and there is no doubt about it.”
He added that the target was not limited to physical attacks but “this is the era of fifth-generation hybrid warfare.” [including] Fake news on social media and international outlets”.
Despite this, Omar said, the top political leadership of Pakistan and China, as a whole, were “committed” to the friendship between the two countries.
He had earlier said on Twitter that Thursday’s JCC meeting “will lay the foundation for further intensification and broadening of CPEC”.
The Planning Minister, in his JCC address earlier in the day, expressed the same sentiment about the potential threats to the CPEC, saying that many countries in the world were “unhappy and bewildered” by its successful development.
More to follow.
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