Pakistan to host 3rd CPEC/Silk Road Forum next year: Mushahid
Source : www.cpecinfo.com Date : 17-08-2016
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ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed announced that the next CPEC and Silk Road Forum will have its 3rd international conference here in August 2017.
The forum has been held in the past two years in the city of Karamay in Xinjiang province of China.
The Chairman said this while speaking to the media on his return after attending the Silk Road Forum in Karamay where Pakistan had a representation of over 50-person delegation.
Senator Mushahid Hussain said the Silk Road Forum is organized by the international think tank, Research and Development International (RDI) and co-chaired from the Chinese side by prominent parliamentary, Dr. Zhao Baiga and on the Pakistan side by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed.
The think tank organized the last two forums in cooperation with the central government of China and the provincial government of Xinjiang and unanimously decided to hold the 3rd forum in Pakistan because CPEC is the pilot and flagship project of the One Belt, One Road initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Pakistani delegation that attended the Karamay Forum included apart from Senator Mushahid Hussain, Senator Salim Mandviwala, Senator Talha Mahmood plus forum finance minister, Shaukat Tarin, Deputy Governor of State Bank, Saeed Ahmad, Chairman, Gwadar Port Authority, Dostain Jamaldini, Chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, Saeed Elahi and the Director General, FWO, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Afzal. Representatives of governments of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also present in the conference.
Senator Mushahid Hussain said that this time, the forum at Karamay which is a sister city of Gwadar, also had representatives from Iran and Kazakhstan who expressed strong interest in participating in CPEC. Moreover, MOUs worth over 10 billion dollars were signed in Karamay amongst institutions and companies of Pakistan, China, Iran and Kazakhstan.
Senator Mushahid Hussain said that unanimous decision by these countries was a vote of confidence in Pakistan and its future role as the flagship and the pilot project of the One Belt, One Road through the CPEC, which will drive economic development in Pakistan and the region and unite the federation of Pakistan by bringing prosperity and progress to less developed regions of Pakistan particularly Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, who is Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the CPEC/Silk Forum, to be held in Islamabad in 2017, said, "We would consult all the stakeholders including the federal government, provincial governments, private sector as well as all relevant stakeholders for holding what will probably be the biggest and the most important conference on CPEC and Silk Road to be held in Pakistan.