ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister of Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday unearthed the plan of establishment of University of Central Asia in Pakistan wherein students from Central Asian Republics (CARs) would come for study.
In his address at an International Conference titled “Pakistan: A Land of Opportunities for Central Asian Republics” organized by the National Security Division (NSD) of Government of Pakistan and Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS) in Islamabad, the minister said cooperation among the youth of Pakistan and CARs was their top priority.
The minister said the future of Pakistan and Central Asia was common as they had cultural similarity. “Our cultural roots are in Central Asia,” Ahsan Iqbal said.
Ahsan Iqbal said numerous opportunities for interaction were present between Pakistan and Central Asian Countries.
“We need to create more spaces for regional integration,” adding South Asia China and Central Asia could be one entity through Pakistan.
The planning and development minister said 2025 of Pakistan was to integrate with neighboring Countries and disconnect from geopolitics that brought only ills to Pakistan in the past.
The minister said now they worked for trade and economy as the Century of politics had ended, adding that was the Century of trade connectivity and regional integration. He said every Country was focusing to provide prosperity which was only possible through regional cooperation and connectivity.
Ahsan Iqbal said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was the right step towards regional connectivity. He said Gwadar port had become Smart City of the regional connectivity.
The minster said CPEC would establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) all over Pakistan where CARs would have opportunities to make investment.
“Pakistan will play lead role in changing economic culture of the region,” Ahsan Iqbal said.
Furthermore, the federal minister also urged the significance of air connectivity between Pakistan and Central Asian Countries. He stressed they required soft visa regime among all of them because people to people contact was not possible without soft visa regime.
The minister also said Pakistan was also working for Russian language program for science and medicine students. He said collective media production initiative was also on the card.
“We can fight poverty terrorism and climate change together,” the minister added.
Ahsan Iqbal further said the Central Asia South Asia (CASA-1000) project would help Pakistan in energy sector where the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project would also be completed soon.
Earlier in his opening remarks at the Conference, the President CGSS Major General (retd) Khalid Amir Jaffery highlighted the significance of cultural ties between Pakistan and CARs, as well as shed lights on how CPEC provided opportunities to the regional Countries to come closer.
The Conference hosted experts and high level delegations from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It held brainstorming sessions aiming at to enhance the regional economic opportunities and discuss regional security paradigm.
