ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China opened the 14th meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Beijing on Friday, Radio Pakistan said, with officials pledging to expand cooperation in the second phase of the multibillion-dollar infrastructure program.
CPEC, launched in 2015 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, saw more than $25 billion invested in energy and transport projects during its first phase, including motorways, power plants and the Gwadar port. The second phase is expected to shift the focus to industrial cooperation, agriculture, technology and human capital development.
CPEC projects have stalled in recent years due to persistent security threats to Chinese workers and bureaucratic delays, and Islamabad is now seeking to revive momentum under the second phase.
“CPEC Phase-II will mark a new era of people and youth-focused development,” Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal was quoted by Radio Pakistan as saying, with projects such as PhD scholarships, innovation centers and internships in Chinese institutions.
According to Iqbal, Gwadar — a deep-sea port in southwest Pakistan built with Chinese funding — has already transformed from a small fishing town into a key maritime hub for Beijing’s Belt and Road trade routes, while the planned Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway upgradation — a multibillion-dollar project to modernize Pakistan’s colonial-era rail network from Karachi to Peshawar — is expected to overhaul the country’s transport system.
He added that joint laboratories in artificial intelligence and quantum sciences, agricultural reform projects and electric vehicle initiatives would also be part of the new phase.
The minister noted that Pakistan wants its exports to have the same level of preferential access to Chinese markets as those from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional bloc that already enjoys major trade concessions from Beijing.
He said every corridor under Phase-II of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would be tied to specific export targets. Iqbal also pointed to a proposed “mining corridor” linking Chaghi — a mineral-rich district in Balochistan — to the Chinese-built port of Gwadar, which he said would open new avenues for investment. New border markets at Khunjerab Pass on the China border and Torkham on the Afghan frontier are also planned to boost regional trade, Ahsan added.
Iqbal stressed that Islamabad remained committed to securing CPEC projects and Chinese personnel working in Pakistan, describing the safety of investments as a government priority.
