CPEC Committee to Finalise long term plan Tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will meet here on Tuesday (Nov 21) to review and finalise a long-term plan (LTP) 2017-30 envisaging key areas of bilateral cooperation over the next 13 years amid Islamabad’s policy adjustments to facilitate Chinese investment and financing.

A senior government official told Dawn that both senior officials meeting (SOM) and formal JCC meeting headed by ministers from the two countries would begin with discussions on the LTP in an attempt to sign a final agreement. He said the LTP draft, finalised after the 6th JCC meeting held in Beijing in December last year and shared with the provincial governments, had remained unchanged.

The official said a cabinet committee on CPEC headed by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had already agreed in principle to offer a special incentive package under which all investments in the first phase of nine special industrial/economic zones to be made by end-2020 would enjoy complete tax holiday.

The 40-member SOM to be presided over by the planning and development secretary and his Chinese counterpart on Nov 20 will begin the day with discussions on the LTP and industrial and economic cooperation flowing out of it. All the six joint working groups on the LTP – industrial cooperation, Gwadar, transport infrastructure, energy and security – are led by federal secretaries and their Chinese counterparts.