Reema Shaukat
Amid all controversies and debate on CPEC, this game changer project underwent major developments in year 2016, thus giving a befitting reply to the opponents and adversaries of Pakistan and CPEC venture. Year 2016 brought noteworthyevolvement in CPEC where people witnessed Pak-China friendship prospering and promptexpansion work being done under CPEC. Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong reiterated on many occasions that 16 early harvest projects, including several power stations, highways and projects related to Gwadar Port, are under construction and tens of thousands of new jobs have been created for local people. He said, “The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is building a more amicable bond between our two brotherly countries. Our friendly cooperation is ushering in a golden era for greater development,”Earlier on one occasion he said, “China is satisfied with the pace of implementation of the CPEC project. CPEC is under smooth implementation, and will deliver mutual benefits to both countries and people of the whole region.”China and Pakistan friendship has emerged as amicable strategic partnership based on mutual interest with trust. Over the years, both the countries have developed strong bilateral trade and economic collaboration. China has gradually emerged as Pakistan’s major trading partner both in domain of exports and imports. Today, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become talk of the globe. CPEC, an essential component of One Belt, One Road proposed by China, is termed as a “Game Changer” for Pakistan. It is not only the pivot of China-Pakistan politico-economic relations, but holds similar promise for the region and beyond. While the project offers enormous opportunities to Pakistan such as economic prosperity, socio-economic uplift of general population and under developed areas, there are also few challenges attached to it.Because of its wide-ranging scope, CPEC particularly has gained the attention of the West and the USA. For them this massive project by China under the concept of OBOR will make China an economic giant than already it is and will undermine the USA as superpower of the world. Under the OBOR, countries will be connected through infrastructure and telecommunication links. This will be accomplished by developing deep water ports, where possible and then building the infrastructure to link them through industrial zones and markets. Apart from work going on establishment of Gwadar Port in Pakistan, Chinese intend to develop such ports in Piraeus (Greece), Zarubino (Russia), Djibouti and Mombasa (Africa) and Kyaukpyu (Myanmar). One of the OBOR projects likely to be completed early is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Basically, the project is to link the Indian Ocean port of Gwadar in Pakistan to the Chinese rail hub of Kashgar, a distance of some 2000 miles through some of the highest passes in the Himalayas involving nearly 125 miles of mountain tunnels. This corridor will consist of road, rail, oil and liquefied gas pipelines, and fibre optic cable links. Industrial plants, most of them related to energy, will be set up in the corridor. Some $46 billion is earmarked for the whole project in which $34 billion is kept for energy projects and $12 billion allocated for infrastructure development. While attaining the holds of deep sea ports and waters, China will surpass superiority of USA and other western countries and therefore speculations by West are natural. Therefore, foes of Pakistan and China are leaving no stone unturned to create differences between both countries and trying their best to halt this project.
In November, 2016 a trade convoy organized by the two countries successfully passed through the western part of Pakistan for the first time from the north to the south, proving the connectivity of local roads and the realization of the concept of “one corridor with multiple passages” under the CPEC.Meanwhile, Gwadar Port also marked its first export of massive containers to overseas destinations in November, showing that the port’s designed handling capacity has been restored.Since the commencement of the CPEC, 2016 is the year when we have seen a project completed or started working. In addition to the Gwadar Port operations, Prime Minister Sharif also inaugurated a number of others projects in the country, especially in some routes in the western part of the CPEC. There are at least 39 projects, the majority of them related to energy, where obvious progress has been seen during 2016.In the second phase of upgrading the Karakorum Highway from Havelian to Thakot and the highway linking Pakistan’s largest cities of Karachi and Lahore. Both of the two highways have been smoothly implemented and for the former, the Abbottabad Tunnel construction project has begun and seen applicable progress.In terms of the energy field, China is helping boost green, low-carbon and sustainable energy development to address power shortage in Pakistan.Several wind power farms and hydropower stations are under construction and the noticeable Port Qasim coal-fired power project in Karachi, which adopts a costly method to lower the temperature of the seawater used to cool the generating units in order to prevent them from heating up water temperature around the coast, is expected to be completed ahead of schedule and play its role in addressing Pakistan’s electricity shortage. Economists say that due to the enhanced infrastructure such as roads and railways brought by the CPEC, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth should increase from around 4.7 percent last year to around 6 percent by 2019, and stay around the same level for 2020 in the southern Asian country.The CPEC itself for Pakistan at a bare minimum offers a significant opportunity for the country to address its supply side constraints such as weak foreign capital inflow. CPEC will attract foreign direct investment from both private and public sectors to help keep a balanced current account in Pakistan against a backdrop of rebounding oil prices. With the improved security situation, foreign investors are getting attracted to CPEC and positive economic indicators are gauging for boom in Pakistan.There is a dire need to understand what this CPEC is going to bring in for Pakistan. No doubt concerns on such massive project are logical and need to be answered wisely and timely but one must not forget that if Pakistan is giving China a place for investment, in return this project will vastly benefit Pakistan with many opportunities in developmental sector including economic elevation, job opportunities, training of skilled labour, splendid infrastructure etc.Therefore, in order to fully reap these benefits, the government of Pakistan will have to take account of challenges in order to make CPEC eloquent. Being taking it as a national responsibility, our mainstream political parties and their leadership and people of Pakistan should take lead role in proving that CPEC is a God gifted opportunity for prosperity and welfare of Pakistan and it will surely be a definite success.
