ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning Development Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday categorically rejected the negative perception about China’s Belt and Road Initiative dubbed as a ‘debt trap,’ saying false stories were concocted to spread propaganda in global geopolitical competition.
The minister said that he did not think that BRI is a debt trip as he believed that the propaganda against the mega-project was just a fact trap to distort the spirit of it. He said that wherever the BRI has entered, the local people can testify that it brought very positive impacts.
The BRI’s flagship project CPEC was started in 2013. Its aim was to connect China with the Pakistani port of Gwadar through highway, pipeline, and rail infrastructure. Ahsan Iqbal lauded China for extending the BRI project to Pakistan in the shape of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which provided Pakistan with a great opportunity in areas of infrastructure, telecommunication, energy, industrial cooperation and in unlocking untapped resources like massive coal deposits in Thar desert.
Ahsan Iqbal highlights Gwadar’s importance
He highlighted the importance of the project, saying Gwadar Port City was ready to become a major commerce and trade hub in the area with its economic zones and investment from Chinese companies.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was personally supervising the progress and implementation of CPEC projects, and despite negative perceptions and propaganda, the government is committed to complete the projects on time.
