The CCLS, in collaboration with PCI, Islamabad, hosted an online conference on 09 November 2020, titled ‘Poverty Alleviation, Covid-19 and CPEC – Connecting the Dots’.
The conference was graced by an expert panel discussion by Dr. Sania Nishtar (Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation); Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed (Chairman Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Pakistan); Mr. Masood Khalid (Former Ambassador of Pakistan to China); Professor Xia Qingjie (Peking University, China); Dr. Vaqar Ahmed (Executive Director, SDPI); and Professor Uzair J. Kayani (Faculty, Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMS). The moderator, Professor Sikander Ahmed Shah, engaged the panel in an insightful conversation on Pakistan's existing Poverty Alleviation Strategy, the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Pakistan, and CPEC's role vis-à-vis poverty alleviation in the country. The panel also discussed China’s Poverty Alleviation Strategy in an attempt to understand how Pakistan can learn from and employ China’s best practices.
Mr. Mustafa Hyder Sayed (Executive Director, PCI) presented closing remarks for the conference, urging the audience to focus their energies on small and medium enterprises that enhance the vocational potential of our country.
