INP-WealthPk
CPEC Heading in Right Direction, Unleashing Economic Benefits
April 04, 2022
By Abdul Wajid Khan ISLAMABAD, April 04 (INP-WealthPK) A top government official and economic development specialist says China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is moving in the right direction, creating a wealth of opportunities for the economic revival of Pakistan, reports WealthPK. In an interview with WealthPK, Dr. Hassan Daud Butt, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) and former project director of CPEC, said CPEC was moving in the right direction, and currently, more expansion was happening under it. He said CPEC had created a lot of opportunities for the economic revival of Pakistan. “Under CPEC, involvement of stakeholders from both countries is constantly growing and their interests are also increasing. It is bringing synergy in many areas at government to government, business to business and gross-root levels”, he said. Under the multibillion-dollar project, he added, a platform was being established for relocation of Chinese and global enterprises. All projects under CPEC – including socioeconomic, agriculture, road infrastructure and other sectors – have great importance and are benefiting the country. So, CPEC is creating a win-win situation. Now it has also increased discussion about integration of supply chains. “CPEC has also increased bilateral cooperation at the higher education level. On the academician side, higher education institutions are now looking for exploring new areas. Interaction among academicians has increased and collaboration in research and development is also growing. We are learning from China and have started creating special technology zones”, Dr. Hassan Daud Butt added. He said CPEC had demonstrated that Pakistan in a very less time could attract investment of $28 billion in different sectors including energy, projects under the private public partnership. “CPEC is also bringing novelty in many sectors. Under the private-public partnership, new avenues were introduced such as Rashakai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in which China is also a partner. Such projects were never conceived before. You can see development at Gwadar; it’s again in the public-private partnership mode and such development did not happen in the last 70 years”, he highlighted. Dr. Butt added that in the current circumstances, Pakistan needed industrial development and creation of an enabling environment to attract investment. CPEC is pushing the country in this direction. So SEZs are being constructed to attract industry by focusing on the manufacturing sector or efficiency seeking industry, particularly in the mobile phone or high-tech industry. “CPEC has brought these things in our household discussions. For example, the media is discussing why the industrial sector is not developing fast. Before it, only politics was discussed in the media. Again, I will compliment CPEC in which we are seeing Chinese development whether it is socioeconomic development or industrial development as a model. Our prime minister has presented China as an example multiple times because it has done unprecedented things in human history and achieved great benefits of globalization. China has become a factory of the world and research studies suggest that it will also remain so in future”, he said. Smooth implementation of CPEC, which is considered a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is underway. According to a document recently issued by the government, a copy of which is also available with WealthPK, currently 39 projects related to energy, transport infrastructure, and industrial cooperation have either been completed or are at the implementation stage at a cost of around $25 billion. Out of these 39 projects, 18 related to power production, transport infrastructure, and socioeconomic development have been completed at the total cost of USD15.7 billion, while 21 projects are at diffident stages of implementation with an estimated cost of around $9.3 billion. In Gwadar, multiple mega projects are likely to be completed this year. The projects expected to be completed in the current year include Pakistan-China Friendship Hospital, Gwadar Eastbay Expressway, provision of water to Gwadar city, linking Gwadar to the national electricity grid, the establishment of University of Gwadar, Gwadar Safe City project and others. Construction work on a modern hospital in Gwadar is also likely to be completed by December this year. Under CPEC, work on the following projects in the energy sector has already been completed. They include 1,320MW Sahiwal Coal-Fired Power Plant, 1,320MW Port Qasim Coal-Fired Power Plant, 1,320MW China-Hub Coal-Fired Power Plant, 660MW Engro Thar Power & Mine, 400MW Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park, 100MW UEP Wind Farm, 100MW Three Gorges Wind Power, 50MW Sachal Wind Farm, 50MW Hydro China Dawood Wind, and HVDC+660KV Matiari-Lahore Transmission Line. In the transport and infrastructure sector, projects on which work has been completed include Multan-Sukkur Motorway (M5), Orange Line Metro Train Project, Karakoram Highway Phase-II Havelian-Thakot Section, Cross Border Optical Fibre Cable, Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB), Gwadar Smart Port City Master Plan, Gwadar Port and Free Zone and a project related to the social development sector.
