On the first China-Pakistan “Belt and Road” Transportation and Logistics Forum themed “Research Cooperation and Common Prosperity” jointly launched by Shandong Jiaotong University, Kashgar University, and Pakistan National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Dr. Ashfaque H. Khan shared his views on making CPEC a truly regional initiative.

Regional connectivity is vital to regional cooperation and integration. Dr. Ashfaque H. Khan explained that regional connectivity is a new buzz word and can promote globalization. “China’s BRI has emerged as a new form of globalization and CPEC is the cornerstone of BRI. CPEC is not a bilateral project between China and Pakistan, but a regional project that can benefit more countries,” he added.

CPEC is well known as a trade corridor involving roads, railways, oil, gas and optical cable channels. With the continuous completion of transportation infrastructure such as expressways, airports, ports, railways, light rail and bus rapid transit, the operation has become the main issue. The lack of international talents in the field of transportation and logistics has become an obstacle.

In his opening remarks, Chen Songyan, President of Shandong Jiaotong University, stressed it is important to provide a platform to converge resources and open cooperation, meanwhile giving full play to the resource advantages of the three universities, to innovate the intelligent logistics operation mode and build a more prosperous, stable, and harmonious modern logistics alliance.

On the occasion, Deng Yong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Kashgar University, and Dr Osman Hasan, Pro-Rector Academics, NUST, stated that Chinese and Pakistani universities should continue to strengthen cooperation in various fields. Transportation and logistics are critical for the tracking and logging of shipment information, road safety protocols and monitoring, traffic surveillance and climate-related hazard avoidance among Belt and Road countries.