Daily Times

China Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC) is of great importance for both China and Pakistan. China’s government is striving to consume its supporting role to build an environment for the open economic system and logistic system under the CPEC. It is considered as the corridor of peace, prosperity and development having potentials for a promising future for Pakistan.

This mega project is helping Pakistan improve the infrastructure, energy requirements, workforce development and economic progress. China and Pakistan have formed a joint cooperation committee to promote the construction of CPEC project (2013-2030). It needs the mutual efforts of governments, companies and all social sectors of China and Pakistan.

Discussing the energy sector under CPEC, there were 16 projects prioritised with the total capacity of 10,400MW as well as 8 actively promoted projects. The year 2017 has witnessed the operationalisation of 2×660 MW Sahiwal Coal-Fired Power Plant, 50MW Dawood Wind Farm and 50MW Sachal Wind Farm. Near to completion are the 900MW Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur (90 percent of work has been done) and 100MW Jhimpir Wind Farm.

2x660MW Port Qasim Coal-fired Power Plant, 4x330MW Engro Thar Coal-fired Power Plant and Surfice Mine in Block-II of Thar Coal Field, 720 MW Karot Hydro-Power Project, and 873 MW Suki Kinari Hydro-power Project are under construction.

The year 2017 has witnessed 70 percent completion of the two infrastructure projects; KKH Phase-II (Havelian-Thakot Section), 120 km, Karachi-Lahore Motorway (Sukkur-Multan Section), 392 km. Rest of the infrastructure projects are working on their pace while the spine of the CPEC Railway Line ML-I’s complete feasibility report has been compiled up for further progress. An efficient and fast transportation network is of vital importance for the country’s economic development.

China has advantages in experience, technology, financing and industrial capacity, while Pakistan enjoys favourable conditions in resources, labour force and market. Both sides will benefit from industrial cooperation

In the area of industrial cooperation under CPEC, there are six projects under construction and 2018 will be witnessing their destiny. China has advantages in experience, technology, financing and industrial capacity, while Pakistan enjoys favourable conditions in resources, labour forces and market. By carrying out industrial cooperation, both sides will benefit.

The year 2017 marked a landmark achievement for Pakistan as Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the CPEC Long Term Plan would be made public on December 18, 2017 which would add to the prospects for more inclusive research of this mega project. Simultaneously, there are bright prospects to jack up the developments in various sectors which include agriculture and information technology.

This demonstrates the success of this meeting and the willingness of China to diversify its cooperation under the CPEC project. In this backdrop, harmony between the provincial and federal governments is required and they should work enthusiastically for the inclusion of more projects under CPEC and to complete the ongoing projects. It can be hoped that the end result would be productive and the project will be able to proceed.

The continuity of the meetings of Joint Cooperation Committee since 2013 to Nov 2017 shows the evaluation and progress of work on the ongoing projects under CPEC. 7th JCC has further deepened mutual cooperation between the two countries under the framework of CPEC and would pave a clear way for Pakistan to enter the phase of industrial cooperation.

Furthermore, CPEC is not limited to just a road, but it will connect with numbers of motorways and infrastructure projects. The CPEC has helped Pakistan mitigate chronic energy crises which have negative impacts on the economic growth of the country. This energy shortage has hampered the industrial production and the businesses were closed down because of the interrupted supply of energy.

According to recent report of Centre for International Development at Harvard, increase in growth rate depend upon the gains in productive capabilities and Pakistan’s predicted annual growth rate for next ten years is 5.0 percent.

Its immediate neighbours China and India will grow by 4.28 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. Pakistan’s economy would be revolutionised through infrastructure build-up by China’s huge assistance. China not only assists Pakistan at regional level but also at global forums.

It has offered Pakistan to bear 80 percent of financial cost of two Karachi nuclear power plants of 2100 megawatt, ready to sell eight conventional submarines to Pakistan Navy and cooperated in the production of JF-17 Thunder. China’s assistance in uplifting of Pakistan’s economy would bring immense opportunities for the people of Pakistan. Additionally, according to World Economic Forum Report (WEFR), Pakistan has been ranked 115th out of 137 countries in 2017 while it was 126th in 2016.

The multidimensional CPEC project is receiving the highest level of government interest in both countries. It is on the way in realising the goal of bringing mutual prosperity to the two countries with the development of Gwadar Port, fibre optical links, establishment of new infrastructure and a host of energy-cooperation projects. Simultaneously, it is facing some challenges ahead.

Pakistan’s economic development is its key principle through CPEC. Hence progress has started on their joint initiatives to develop Gwadar Port as commercial and international port. It is first priority of Pakistan to safeguard its territorial integrity and national interest in every single project under CPEC.

Initially, the Long Term Plan leaked by a local newspaper did not mention the agriculture sector. However, now, in this LTP report, the major portion has been earmarked for the agricultural field. Everything is connected with each other as the development in infrastructure brings revolution in the agricultural technology. Investment in the road infrastructure reduces the cost of transportation. Improvement in the quality of the roads leads to the increment of 20 or 35 percent in the purchasing power of the farmers according to the season.

Likewise, poor infrastructure has adverse impact on the export of agriculture output because farmers have usually low access to credit in almost all developing countries which could be a hurdle in purchasing the inputs used in farms. It is also observed that markets located at distance are the main hurdle in use of fertilizers and for selling the agricultural products. Various types of infrastructure and agricultural output growth are directly proportional.

If irrigation infrastructure is developed, the revolutionary changes in agricultural output are inevitable by enhancing the land use intensity and provide incentives to farmers to use productivity increasing inputs. Rural electrification increases the irrigated area and also irrigation facilities.

As a result, the output of crops cultivated through underground irrigation system is always higher than those under canal or tank irrigation. Therefore, one could be optimistic about the CPEC project because the development of infrastructure brings revolution in agriculture technology in various sectors. And in the year 2017, the CPEC gradually strengthened after defying all the hurdles.

The writer is Research Associate at Strategic Vision Institute Islamabad

Published in Daily Times, January 10^th 2018.