Abdul Wajid Khan

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is on the right track and the economic activities in Gwadar will go up in the next four to five years, reports WealthPK. This is despite challenges such as Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict, said a government official.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) Chief Executive Officer Dr Hassan Daud Butt said in an interview with WealthPK that the pace of work on the development of special economic zones (SEZs) was slow due to a lack of institutional expertise. Dr Butt, also a former CPEC Project Director, said the pace of work on the SEZs should be improved.

“We should use SEZs to their full potential. The government should launch pilot projects in SEZs as the country needs industrial development and creation of enabling environment to attract investment,” he added.

Answering a question, he said economic activities in Gwadar would be increased in the next four to five years. He said a fishing village was being converted into a modern port city.  In order to build and fully operationalise a port, ample time was required. Work on the projects in Gwadar was under way and some projects had already been completed, he said. He said there was a need to develop suitable governance infrastructure for Gwadar city and Dubai model or any port-city model should be adopted for it.

Dr Butt said the concerns of the Chinese companies should be addressed and all commitments made by the government with them should be honoured.

“When government offers incentives to the investors, these incentives should be realistic and then these commitments should be fully fulfilled,” he said. He said despite these issues, investment in energy sector from Chinese investors would not stop.

He suggested that the government ensure an enabling environment to bring more investment in the country and one-window services for investors should be improved.

A document recently issued by the government says currently, 39 projects related to energy, transport infrastructure and industrial cooperation have either been completed or are under the implementation stage at a cost of around $25 billion.

Out of these 39 projects, says the document a copy of which is also available with WealthPK, 18 projects related to power production, transport infrastructure and socioeconomic development have been completed at a cost of $15.7 billion, while 21 projects are at various stages of implementation with an estimated cost of around $9.3 billion.

Under the CPEC, work on the following projects in the energy sector has already been completed. These projects included 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 already been completed included 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.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk