Shehbaz Sharif delivers extempore speech at OBOR Summit 2017, focuses on development and progress

BEIJING - Chinese initiative of One Belt and One Road (OBOR) has the potential to bring about lasting peace, stability and economic integration in the region, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37old9SdIec&feature=youtu.be

"OBOR is an effective recipe to overcome the scourges of terrorism by empowering the people," the chief minister said while speaking at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

Interestingly, due to Shehbaz Sharif’s contributions to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and his development expertise, Chinese leadership specially requested him to share his thoughts on the OBOR project.

Shehbaz, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, didn’t take any notes to stage and spoke his heart out on Pak-China friendship and development for about 15 to 20 minutes.

"This and Road Summit provides a wonderful forum to boost cooperation, build cooperative frameworks and share cooperation of outcomes," said the chief minister of Pakistan's most developed province, Punjab.

Shehbaz Sharif hailed President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road programme as an innovative and trailblazing concept. "We, in Pakistan, consider President Xi’s initiative not only bold and futuristic but also epic and historic," he told the leaders from all over the world participating in the Forum.

As many as 28 heads of state and world leaders were present on the occasion.

"The incorporation of OBOR in the United Nation Security Council resolution signals greater global ownership of the project. Belt and Road vision as harbinger of a new era of connectivity and integration."

He also thanked President Xi for his historic gift of over $50 billion through CPEC. Revival of New Silk Roads, which is at the heart of OBOR, shows a new era of hope, and a break of a new dawn", he explained.

Commenting on the benefits of the projects, he said, One Belt and One Road would take Pakistan’s passport to a new level of human development and progress.

"President Xi Jinping’s crusade against corruption has inspired me personally to take a leaf from his book."