Daily Times

China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the symbol of modern development and progress under the dynamic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has emerged as corner stone of growth in Pakistan.

The commitment of China and Pakistan with the passion of friendship having the history of seven decades have been pushing forward the smooth construction of CPEC projects illustrating the deep understanding between two sides.

With the significant results of first phase, the CPEC entered into the 2nd phase of its development by innovating the local growth models and transforming the overall trajectory of sustainable development.

CPEC under the concept of shared future of mankind holding high the banner of peace and development have helped the country to develop the socio economic outlook positively featuring the strategic planning to pursue the regional and international partnerships.

The smooth development and the results cultivated under CPEC have gained the attention of international financial institutions and other global bodies that have projected the economic indicators of Pakistan positively for the upcoming decades.

In the only initial 7 years, CPEC attracted the direct investment of more than $25 billion that helped in tackling the worst energy crisis in the country and laid the foundation for the construction of modern highways and motorways including the completion of Pakistan’s first electric-powered public transport project known as Orange Line Metro Line (OLMT) that opened the doors for innovative sub ways. The smooth functioning of this multi-billion dollars also maintained the pace of development and progress amidst the sudden outbreak of COVID-19. Pakistan is one of the fortunate country that have contained the spread of COVID-19 pandemic with the quick preparedness and the effective monitoring mechanism launched by the government.

American business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and others lauded Pakistan’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19 outbreak.

The Chinese assistance to Pakistan under Health Silk Road (HSR) concept regarding the provision of CPVID-19 testing kits and the vaccines have also helped Pakistan to contain the pandemic to a certain level.

The implementation of smart lock down in affected areas helped Pakistan not to put overall lock down on the economic system and the industries.

This strategy helped government to keep the work going on CPEC projects with the strict implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

With the consistent consultations and coordination, both governments contained the challenges of COVID-19 that helped to continue the work on CPEC without putting any kind of halt on projects by maintain existing number of jobs.

With the mutual collaboration the impact of COVID-19 on CPEC was controlled enough and the withdrawal of workforce was avoided that supported in maintaining the momentum of work pace.

Not a single case of COVID-19 was reported from CPEC sites that shows the highest level of preventive measures were adopted to keep the CPEC facilities free from pandemic.

The mutual trust of both in the context of time tested friendship proved as the manifestation for the timely implementation of projects that even global pandemic could not hurt the pace of CPEC.

Worthy to note is that BRI have come up as the only project that was working on its pace for fulfilling the needs of development in various countries during the COVID-19.

It has been recognized as a kind of initiative that did not face any halt during pandemic and was even providing new jobs for the locals in respective countries.

Amidst the worst health crisis, through the construction of BRI, China is sharing the benefits of its reforms and opening up policies with the partner countries who have joined the journey towards the development of shared destiny.

China maintains the pace of work under BRI to promote cooperation and dialogues among countries along Silk Road that is setting up a new type of global partnership based on mutual benefits.

The efforts of Chinese government and people during the pandemic for injecting a new momentum to development process under BRI shows that the dream of building the global harmonious society is not far away.

The continuous work on BRI shows that China with the support of partner countries will continue to employ the solid efforts for market advantages of all.

In order to defeat the impacts of pandemic on the global economies, the spirit of Silk Road is being maintained so that the harmonious, inclusive and mutually beneficial results can be gained at all cost.

The benefits cultivated under CPEC including the creation of more than 70,000 direct jobs for the locals, contribution of 1 to 2 percentage points to the country’s GDP growth, development of Gwadar port as a regional trade hub, thousands of scholarships for Pakistani students, establishment of vocational training centers, under construction Gwadar airport and others are the manifestation that the projects on ground are moving ahead smoothly without any barriers.

Indian and western media always try to project the development of CPEC negatively in their reports for their vested interests.

Contrary to their reports, people of Pakistan are enjoying the various benefits of CPEC and now the second phase is set to boost Pak-China cooperation in agriculture and initiate an era of industrialization through establishment of Special Economic Zones.

Indian media and counted number of western media outlets with the exaggerated analysis of so called experts are trying to undermine the development of CPEC for their own reasons.

These are the media outlets who have never sent their correspondents to visit Pakistan to observe the genuine development work going on in reality.

It is the dire need of the time to counter the propaganda reports of those media groups by projecting the countless benefits gained with the development of CPEC.

The presentation of credible information regarding CPEC is highly significant to counter the misguided narratives presented by a group of media outlets.

Pakistani and Chinese media outlets should establish a joint strategy to refute the baseless reports by those media groups and should present the comprehensive reports on CPEC development timely for the appetite of local and international audience.

The author is a media fellow of China South Asia and South East Asia Press Centre