ISLAMABAD: China’s high-powered delegation is on a visit to Pakistan to finalise socio-economic cooperation projects up to $1 billion grants money as Islamabad has made formal request to provide 20,000 scholarship to Pakistani students in different fields in phases.In the first phase, it is expected that China will provide 300 to 400 scholarships to Pakistani students as Islamabad wants opportunity for students to study in best educational institutions of China.In the first phase, China has taken decision to execute projects of $200 million and these projects will be finalised in consultation with federal and provincial government under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Both sides have identified six major areas of cooperation in socio-economic cooperation including education, health, technical training, small scale agriculture, poverty alleviation projects and clean drinking water. The smart school will be another area of cooperation as the existing buildings will be converted into smart one such as through establishment of solar provisions for electricity to school buildings for achieving the desired results.The technical training can be another area where Chinese can impart technical training and skills to Pakistani students as through affiliation with best Chinese institutions the students’ degrees would be recognised in all parts of the world.The transfer of technology can also be objectives for expanding the scope of CPEC to other areas. “The visiting Chinese delegation is going to stay in the country till next week for holding meetings with federal and provincial governments in order to finalise socio-economic uplift projects under CPEC up to $1 billion for next two to three years period,” top official sources said while talking to The News here on Monday.In the first phase, the projects having worth up to $200 million will be executed through expansion of scope of CPEC.There is an impression that CPEC has been slowing down owing to obvious reasons that the FDI decreased as the energy projects were nearing to completion. However some other energy projects especially some hydropower projects are expected to get pace after some time. There are some projects such as ML-1 where there is not much progress.The Chinese delegation that had already reached Islamabad would evolve consensus on the list of projects tabled by Pakistani authorities during the last JCC meeting held in Beijing in which both sides agreed to execute these projects in phased manner.“Now the delegation is supposed to finalise list of agreed projects on which Chinese will provide funding. We expect that there will be no need to get approval of the JCC again as it had already consumed so much time but if Chinese side insists, Islamabad will be ready to wait till next JCC meeting that is going to take place in Islamabad probably in coming May or June 2019.When contacted, Federal Secretary Planning Commission Zafar Hassan said that the socio-economic projects would be executed in consultation with the provinces and they were expecting that China would agree to execute certain projects in phased manner.
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2XqNgVV
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