The Silk Road Economic Belt- Xinjiang Karamay Forum will convene in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Aug 9. The forum will discuss the significant achievements from cooperation between China and Pakistan over the past year.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Forum (CPEC), the former name of the Xinjiang Karamay Forum, was held successfully on Aug 11-12, 2015. CPEC resulted in around 20 cooperation agreements worth 10.35 billion yuan ($ 1.56 billion), and issued the “Karamay Manifesto”, a major project in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The two countries pledged to boost bilateral development through energy projects, as well as through cooperation in education and health care. China has made efforts to enhance Sino-Pakistan cooperation in the fields of culture, medicine and education, and has achieved some significant results during the year.

China has offered training classes in education and medicine for 10 doctors and five teachers from Pakistan, starting October 2015, and finishing March 2016. A project benefiting ordinary people, providing education training programs, as well as money for ambulance services and school uniforms has also been initiated in Karamay. It is hoped this will improve health care and living conditions for people living in the Gwador region of Pakistan.

The Silk Road Economic Belt- Xinjiang Karamay Forum, honored as the “Davos Forum in West China”, will start in Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, from Aug 9-11. It is expected to attract around 500 leading figures from the governments of China, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, as well as representatives from businesses and think-tanks.