JEWG will harvest fruitful results in favor of Pakistan

The coming meeting being held under the umbrella of Pakistan-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG) will include the projects of 1124 MW Kohala and 700.7 MW Azad Pattan HPPs as well as 1,320 MW Thar Coal power plant. The highlighted agenda for the forthcoming 9th JEWG in pre Joint Coordination Committee meeting will play a fruitful step. Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal presided over the meeting to review the progress made in preparation for the 11th JCC meeting is expected to be convened in next month. Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood gave a detailed briefing on the 3rd International Cooperation and Coordination JWG meeting held virtually on 22nd July 2022. The foreign secretary said that third-party participation and extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan were also discussed.
A joint study for the future development of Thar Coal has also been made part of the agenda of the coming JEWG meeting. The minister underlined that measures have been taken to provide sufficient power for Gwadar city, and stressed the need for renewable energy projects for Gwadar city development in the future. The meeting also discussed projects in the agriculture and socio-economic sector for the forthcoming 11th JCC meeting. Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) of animals and quarantine issues were explicitly emphasized as important hurdles in meat export to China by a representative from the Ministry of National Food Security, who informed the chair that they are being addressed on priority with Chinese assistance. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications (IC&T) also briefed the meeting on the agenda of the forthcoming 2nd JWG on IT with a focus on the ICT infrastructure development, policy and regulations, human resource development, and cyber security.