Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will arrive in Pakistan on July 30 on a three-day visit to Pakistan to attend the 10-year celebrations of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, the Pakistan Foreign Office said on Saturday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry also confirmed the visit, saying that Special Representative of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier of the State Council He Lifeng will attend the 10th-anniversary celebration of the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan and will meet with the leaders of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry acknowledged Lifeng’s “prominent role” in China’s international economic relations and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a flagship project.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the billion-dollar CPEC project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed hope that the visit will be an opportunity for both sides to jointly implement the important consensus between leaders of the two countries, renew the traditional friendship, build on past achievements and upgrade the development of the CPEC, and strengthen the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.
CPEC
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a significant infrastructure development and regional connectivity project to connect the Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan and China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang via roads, rail and air transportation. It includes the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects and special economic zones.
CPEC has attracted $25.4 billion in direct investment in the 10 years since being launched in 2014. “The projects are creating 192,000 jobs, generating 6,000MW of power, building 510 km (316 miles) of highways, and expanding the national transmission network by 886 km (550 miles),” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
