Sherry for autonomous CPEC authority.

Islamabad -- Chairperson Senate CPEC Committee, Sherry Rehman has We must take ownership of planning and ensure that the trickle-down benefits permeate across all provinces.

Speaking at the Senate CPEC Committee and National Defence University's workshop on the lessons of developing a multi-partisan support for CPEC, Chairperson Sherry Rehman said, that this can only be achieved if an autonomous CPEC authority, either in the Planning Ministry or as an autonomous body, is put in action. It must be made very clear that the challenge to maximising CPEC gains is from Pakistan not China'.

'We must focus on four Cs in order to maximize CPEC's potential: consensus, coordination, capacity and clarity. At the moment, there is no federal capacity to manage policy frameworks and execute the complex set of contractual structures needed for different types of investment models being utilised under CPEC platforms' Rehman added.

She also pointed out, 'A crucial factor that requires attention and is often neglected is the environmental aspect of CPEC. While President Xi Jinping has ensured that the Belt and Road Initiative would be 'green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable', Pakistan, being the world's seventh most climate impacted country, must start prioritising green energy development initiatives and build climate resilience, especially since infrastructural and industrial growth takes away chunks of green acres and expose us to more air and marine pollution'.

'There...