Pakistan government has appointed Lt. Gen. (retd.) Asim Saleem Bajwa as the first Chairman of the newly-established China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA) with an aim to ensure timely completion of the multi-billion dollar projects.
The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
The CPEC was launched in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad and it now envisages investment of over $60 billion in different projects of development in Pakistan.
Lt. Gen. Bajwa was appointed as the Chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority on Tuesday, which comes under Pakistan’s Planning and Development Ministry, Dawn News quoted a notification. “The Chairman will get MP-I scale for a period of four years from the date of assuming the charge of the office with immediate effect and until further orders,” it said.
The authority was established through an ordinance in October, before the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Beijing.
The basic aim of the authority is to ensure timely completion of the CPEC projects.
