PESHAWAR, Mar. 3 (Gwadar Pro) - Thousands of Chinese political and social leaders will be gathering in Beijing for routine annual meetings of two Parliamentary bodies on March 4.However, the “Two Sessions” this year, have significant importance both from Chinese and Pakistani perspectives.

 

The meetings are being held in the backdrop of an announcement by Chinese President Xi Jinping to have eradicated absolute poverty from the country 9 years ahead of the actual schedule. Also, the meetings are going to approve the new 5-year and 15-year plans, focusing technology as the main enhancer of the Chinese economy at home and its influence worldwide.

 

From Pakistan’s perspective, these meetings are crucial as Islamabad sees itself as the next battleground for the China’swar on poverty. Pakistan is already betting heavily on CPEC as a cure for its ailing economy and outdated infrastructure. Yet it needs a systematic and well-structured programme to do away with extreme poverty, especially in rural areas.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, or KP, the smallest of 4 provinces in Pakistan, looks more active than others in capitalising on opportunities brought by CPEC, to alleviate poverty from its central and peripheral areas.

 

Like China, enhancing connectivity among all parts of the province, creating jobs through industrialisation, providing mass education and better healthcare are the four main pillars of the KP government’s endeavour to end poverty.These early measures make KP a strong case for a potential Chinese poverty alleviation programme, as hinted by the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China (IPRCC) and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong.

 

 

The KP government is not only developing two major Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC framework, but also taking measures to rehabilitate the existing industrial estates devastated due to decades of neglect.

 

In one such effort, the KP government recently revived industrial zones in Nowshehra (on M-1), Hattar and D.I. Khan, both on CPEC western route. Irfan Dawar, an official at Nowshera Export Industry Zone said that the neglected zone earlier had only one industrial unit, but now all plots had been booked, including one Saudi company and several Chinese companies.

The KP government also plans to expand the D.I. Khan industrial estate into a full-pledged SEZ under CPEC and has earmarked around 3,000 acres of land for that purpose.

 

KP Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KPEZDMC) is developing，or rehabilitating a total of 17 industrial estates in the province and looks to inauguratea few more, in tribal districts bordering Afghanistan.

 

 

KP is the only province which constructed a 4-lane expressway to provide for an alternate CPEC route. The Swat expressway has the potential to become the most-preferred route for China-bound traffic and has presently stirred an economic revolution in northern parts of the province. China-Pakistan Joint Working Group has agreed to extend the expressway in two phases to intersect the main CPEC corridor in Shangla district of KP, thus, providing for the shortest western alignment of CPEC together with the planned Peshawar-D.I.tKhan motorway.

 

 

During the last 7 years, the KP government not only hired over 100 thousand teachers for government schools and colleges, but also inaugurated new universities andcompleted those chartered by the previous governments. It also invested heavily in educational infrastructures and provided facilities in nearly all public educational institutions.

 

On health front, the government filled vacant positions in health facilities and tripled the strength of health staff. It also rolled out a universal healthcare system which now covers the entire population of the province.

 

These measures of the KP government have provided for much-needed groundwork in the fight against poverty.