(Photo 3: It shows houses for workers to construct the second- and third-phase projects of Three Gorges First Wind Farm Pakistan, built, owned and operated by China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) in Jhimpir, south Pakistan's Thatta district.)
BEIJING -- The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an important part of the "Belt and Road" Initiative construction and also a demonstration project under the "Belt and Road". Capacity cooperation between the two countries has a profound meaning to the CPEC construction with a promising prospect, according to experts and officials at a recent forum.
The international capacity cooperation accords with the era development. As a flagship project of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the CPEC has played a big role in promoting Pakistan's economic and cultural construction. In the future, Pakistan and China will continue to build the CPEC to realize regional interconnection and prosperity, said Pakistan's Minister of Commerce Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan.
Pakistan is a large country in South Asia. With China's acceleration in opening-up to the outside, and its increase in economic power, the capacity cooperation will become a focus of the CPEC construction, said Chen Lijun, director of the Institute for South Asian Studies at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, adding that in recent years, China has constantly increased investments in Pakistan and their early harvest projects have concentrated mainly in fields such as infrastructure, energy, water conservancy, etc.
The China-Pakistan capacity cooperation can not only improve their infrastructure conditions and shorten the distance between Xinjiang and the South Asia to reduce logistics costs, but also accelerate their opening-up and cooperation and better fit in the international economic system, and share the global benefits, said Chen.
At present, China's manufacturing industry is at the key node of transformation and upgrading. Its transfer of capacity to Pakistan and factory establishment there can not only promote development of Pakistan's manufacturing industry and strengthen the "hematopoietic function" for the local economy, but also force the Chinese enterprises to strengthen innovation, reduce labor costs and reinforce international competitiveness, said An Gaole, associate professor at Guizhou Minzu University.
The CPEC is a pilot project under the Belt and Road initiative. To promote the CPEC construction well, experts offered following suggestions.
The first is to guard against the geopolitical risk. The two countries should strengthen cooperation in the safety field and work together to fight terrorism and improve the investment environment. In the CPEC construction, more local workers and managers should be employed and get benefits from the project construction, said Xiao Jianming, a researcher at Kunming University.
The second is to improve systems for capacity cooperation and strengthen the interconnection construction. China and Pakistan should continuously promote construction of the bilateral, multilateral and regional capacity cooperation mechanisms, promote trade convenience, strengthen cooperation in regional organizations, and enhance the service efficiency in railway, waterway transportation, and export rebates. In addition, the two sides should resolve the problem of poor passages as soon as possible to reduce logistics costs, said Chen.
The third is to strengthen cooperation in fields such as energy, agriculture, humanity and education. The two sides should expand cooperation in energy field, which can not only help develop energy and improve people's livelihood in Pakistan, but also help jointly safeguard their energy security. They should also build more information platforms to boost capacity cooperation, according to An.
(By Hu Pingchao, Yao Bin, Yuan Xuelian, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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