BEIJING, July 24 (INP): The decision of the government of Pakistan to set up CPEC Authority will help to speed up socio-economic development work in the country, says a report published by China Economic Net on Wednesday.

Pakistan, China are agreed on formation of CPEC Authority. It is a welcomed step, that CPEC authority will get constitution cover to play an anchoring role in spurring expediting progress of different development projects.

It has been very rare in the history of Pakistan that mega projects and organizations enjoy complete national consensus. If evaluated and analyzed, CPEC authority is perfectly among of them.

The proposed Authority has gained currency expeditiously, and it will soon get the approval of the Parliament. Among other development projects, Gwadar Master Plan and ML-1 Rail track will be immediate beneficiary of CPEC authority. it is expected that the Authority will get established in next four to five months.

According to the report, both strategic partners China and Pakistan put a complete weight behind it. Reason is that the iconic authority offering vibrant “One Window Platform” is termed as a master key to fix all critical issues and hiccups bedeviling rapid pace and development trajectory of all ongoing projects.

Creating a centralized mechanism to facilitate multi-faced and multi-dimensional tasks on a fast-track, hopefully stimulate cohesion among different departments and institutions from Pakistan as well as Chinese side to ensure steady and smooth flow of synergic collaboration, execution and implementation of projects under CPEC. It is being designed to integrate all stakeholders under one roof to open an era of ease of doing business so that modern investment mechanism may thrive.

According to Green Book 2018 published by Pakistan Army, an academic paper titled CPEC challenges and opportunities says “for CPEC to progress smoothly, a one-window platform needs to be created to override the bureaucratic bottlenecks that impair the progress of the project.

Keeping in view Pakistan’s complex, tedious and lethargic system as well as decentralization of powers between provincial governments and central government, formation of CPEC authority is cure. It is long awaited to do wonder.

Since 2013, a number of energy and infrastructure projects out of total 22 projects amounting approximately $ 28 b have been completed under CPEC.

Remaining ones are on various stage of completion. In the absence of CPEC authority, some projects could not pick the pace as they were supposed to gain. Somehow they hit the snags suffering traditional bureaucratic hitches and glitches.

Departmental lack of coordination and misunderstandings also played their parts. Although governments of both countries spared no efforts to streamline the procedures & processes and finally succeeded in acceleration of work but few delays festered the momentum to some extent.

After CPEC authority comes into reality, centralized command and control system will emerge. It will put Gwadar Master Plan on fast-track. It will help improve understanding of local rules & regulations between China and Pakistan.

It may trigger deep coordination and synergic collaboration among various departments and institutions engaged in finalization and implantation of Gwadar Master Plan, the report added.

INP/JAVED