The visiting president-designate of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Jin Liqun on Wednesday showed interest in financing infrastructure projects in energy, transport, sea port and urban development areas in Pakistan.Jin, who was on his first visit to a middle-income emerging prospective founding member of the AIIB since he was named the official candidate for the bank’s president in August, met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and held talks with Pakistani cabinet ministers on cooperation and the AIIB’s investment in Pakistan.According to Xinhua, Sharif told Jin that his government has invested a lot of resources in energy and infrastructure projects with the help of China. Jin Liqun has a vast experience in the field as in addition to serving as Finance Minister of China, he has also worked in the Asian Development Bank and remained head of Chinese Investment Corporation. Through AIIB, China seeks to invest ininfrastructure in the continent, including improving seaports, highways, broadband networks and especially internationalhigh-speed rail links. It is encouraging that Jin Liqun after talks with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister said that a team of experts from the Bank would visit Islamabad soon to ascertain ideas for possible projects and areas where the AIIB could provide funding. He hinted at financing in infrastructure sector including energy, ports, seaports and roads that would boost economy of Pakistan. So the CPEC implementation that involves an investment of $ 46 billion and the interest shown by AIIB for investment, are reflection of China’s interest in the development and prosperity of not only Pakistan but of entire region. We may point out that most projects under CPEC are planned to be completed between one and three years, although some infrastructure projects could take from 10 to 15 years and thus investment is not going to be spread too thin over a longer period of time yet it is of utmost importance that these should be completed in the given period of time. Therefore, to harvest the benefits that are expected from CPEC and the AIIB investment, time demands that Pakistan must gear up all concerned departments and create an enabling atmosphere so that there was no delay of any sort.
pk.shafaqna.com
