by Liao Yifan

 

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 20 (Gwadar Pro) - "There is a Rostovian take-off model of growth in economy, China has helped us alleviating our investment levels and saving levels. Now Pakistan is at the takeoff stage, and China is providing the vital inputs for that as well," said Dr. Khalid Waleed, Research Fellow and Lead Researcher at Sustainable Development Policy Institute of Pakistan.

 

He was speaking at the 8th China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Media Forum which took place both online and offline in Beijing, Islamabad, and Gwadar on Wednesday. Themed "Next decade of CPEC: Opportunities & learning from past decade", the forum was jointly organised by China Economic Net and Pakistan-China Institute in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan.

 

"There are five distinctive stages of Rostovian mode. First, there is a traditional society with a very limited amount of investment and savings. The second stage is a precondition for takeoff, and China has helped us develop this precondition for takeoff. We need to maintain this takeoff. We need to strive for maturity before we can engage in mass production and mass consumption," Khalid stated.

 

Dr. Khalid just returned from COP-28 conference, he said that there are many new initiatives, many structurally transformative initiatives have been taken at the conference. "There is more focus on green growth, development, inclusive development, sustainability, and so on. So we need to club together growth and development. These two concepts in economics are different in terms of economic growth. It resonates in terms of vertical growth, whereas the development, it is horizontally developing the community, all the spectrum of the community. So this forum provides a very good opportunity that we are putting together these economy and growth and development," he added.

 

"In the current global landscape, characterized by transformative changes in various economic structures, the European Union has introduced a carbon border adjustment mechanism. This initiative aims to impose carbon emission taxes on the production of carbon-intensive goods. The collaboration between growth and development, I would say, inclusive green growth and sustainable development. It is very important. China lies at the heart of it," Khalid said.

 

Khalid emphasized the importance of the forum, stating that the phase-II of CPEC is more people-centric. "It focuses on human development. It focuses on how we can use our combined labor force. So we can have this people to people connect and media to media connect. That's why this media forum is very important. At the same time. We need to have green development and we need to club together our growth and development with greener initiatives and sustainability practices."

 

Khalid shared his insights on green development, outlining key factors from A to I that will help China and Pakistan achieve their targets. "A, we need to have a lot of people talking to each other, as people-to-people exchanges will provide more opportunities for cultural engagement in this climate-affected world." B represents the bankability of investment projects. China will receive the returns it deserves from its investments, ensuring the sustainability of these green investments. C encompasses climate-smart policies from both China and Pakistan. D would refer to diplomacy and development. We need to prioritize green diplomacy and green development. E represents the efficiency of economy, energy, and environment. Pakistan has to address the economic, energy, and environmental crises. F would be the most important aspect, financial governance. China has initiated a green investment and finance partnership as an alternative to energy transition partnerships from the West. This is a very positive sort of move from China. G is the greening of CPEC. H is human development through communities so that the benefits of BRI and CPEC trickle down to the communities Lastly, I is for integration, that is not just bilateral integration. It is the regional integration in terms of economic, and environmental measures, as well as energy trading schemes."

 

This article originally appeared on Gwadar Pro.