ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said on Friday that Iran and Saudi Arabia’s desire to join China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework is a good step and Pakistan would welcome their involvement.

“We will welcome both the brotherly Islamic countries, if they want to be part of CPEC,” he told APP. Pakistan, he said, would also welcome and appreciate any friendly country, which desired to participate in the multibillion gigantic flagship project of One Road One Belt initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jining.

CPEC a trans-regional project would benefit three billion people of the region through enhanced regional connectivity with Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces of the country. It is a 15-year long project to be completed in 2030 by focusing on infrastructure development, Gwadar sea port, energy and industrial cooperation, he added.

Terming CPEC one of the best and transparent projects where no transaction is directly made to the government, he said $35 billion are to be utilised by the energy sector in the form of private sector investment, while the rest of the $11 billion investment had to be made by the Chinese companies in the infrastructure sector under concessional financing mode.

About western route of the CPEC, he said work is progressing in full swing and reaffirmed that the route would be completed by 2018. The minister said that 650km long Gwadar-Quetta section of the western route would be completed by December this year. Furthermore, he said after getting this route operational Gwadar would get connected with not only to Quetta, but also to Afghanistan.

With the completion of the western route, people living in the underdeveloped areas would witness new era of development and prosperity, he said. The minister reinforced commitment of the government that the road projects on western passage are being given top priority.

The government is funding the road projects on western route through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), Chinese financing and also through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he added.

He said that the construction work on DI Khan-Hakla 285km motorway fully funded through PSDP had already commenced by completing all the requirements, including feasibility, design, land acquisition and approval in the shortest possible time.