ISLAMABAD: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had already entered the implementation phase and so far 18 under-construction projects generated 13,000 new jobs for local people.

This was stated by China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong on Monday.

“Developments in relation to CPEC were occurring rapidly and both countries recently made minor adjustments to the priority list by upgrading schemes placed under ‘actively promoted projects’,” he said.

“The CPEC was ‘open and inclusive’ and other countries could benefit, the Chinese envoy said while responding to a question about linking Gwadar port with Iran’s Chabahar port.

Ambassador Sun further maintained that in its last meeting of Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC, both countries [China and Pakistan] had agreed upon a new list of priority projects, medium- and long-term plans. He said this had given a new impetus to the CPEC implementation.

The ambassador said that many energy projects would become operational this year and the next year while construction of industrial zones was also set to begin soon. He said that a medium-term plan would be finalised this year.