by Raheela Nazir

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani experts and officials said that the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is all set to develop Pakistan's knowledge-based economy through technological advancements while stressing building intellectual infrastructure in the South Asian country.

Under the innovation corridor of the second phase of CPEC, Pakistan and China need to explore opportunities for enhancing technological collaboration, joint research initiatives, sharing of knowledge and capacity building, the experts said during a seminar organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), an Islamabad-based think tank, on Tuesday.

On the occasion, Jauhar Saleem, president of the IRS, said that the first phase of CPEC has helped Pakistan to build road and energy infrastructure, bringing about socio-economic benefits while improving connectivity, trade, and industrial growth.

He said that Pakistan aimed to foster innovation through partnerships between China and Pakistan in various sectors, including information technology, agriculture, mining, and others under the framework of CPEC.

He added that China and Pakistan should now focus more on enhancing cooperation in research and development, digital infrastructure and building of industrial parks to drive innovation.

Emphasizing Pakistan's potential as a connector of South, Central, East, and West Asia, he noted that the next phase of CPEC shifted the focus from building on physical construction to creating an intellectual infrastructure, since advancing toward a knowledge-based society is only possible for Pakistan by leapfrogging traditional industrialization stages.

Saleem also stressed the need to capitalize on Pakistan's young population by imparting skills and focusing on emerging technologies under CPEC.

Khalid Taimur Akram, executive director of the Pakistan Research Center for a Community with Shared Future in Islamabad, said that the first phase of CPEC was more of government-to-government collaborations, and the next phase will primarily focus on business-to-business (B2B) arrangements.

Highlighting that B2B cooperation and digital innovation are critical in strengthening Pakistan-China economic ties, the expert called for fostering open-source private ventures, enabling Pakistan to accelerate its modernization efforts and better align with the pace of Chinese innovation.

Asif Ali Khan, chairperson of the National Seed Development and Regulatory Authority, said that as the agriculture sector is the backbone of the country's economy, employing a big chunk of the labor force and significantly contributing to the domestic gross product, the sector needs to be modernized with Chinese support and knowledge sharing.

"The country must focus on modern technologies and practices in agriculture to increase high-quality production and good security," he said.

He noted that Pakistan needs to take a leaf out of China's book to revolutionize its agricultural sector, stressing that China's scientific and technological advancements and innovations can play vital roles in this regard.

Talking about the ongoing cooperation between the two countries, Khan said that China has been helping Pakistan to modernize its agricultural sector over the past 10 years under CPEC, and the cooperation between the two countries must be enhanced further.

Launched in 2013, CPEC, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is a corridor linking the Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan's Balochistan province with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The project highlights energy, transport, and industrial cooperation in the first phase, which in the new phase expands to fields of agriculture and livelihood, among others.