Despite repeated claims from two sides to take historic initiative of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to next level at the earliest, the project is unable to regain lost momentum yet Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, true to his nickname of Mr. CPEC, is trying his level best to realise this cherished objective. It is a matter of satisfaction that he is fully alive to issues hindering desired progress in the implementation of both ongoing projects as well as those agreed upon by the two countries for future cooperation under the CPEC framework.
This became evident, once again, on Friday when the Minister convened a high powered meeting of ministries/divisions and departments concerned, which discussed threadbare challenges in the way of accelerated implementation of various projects and firmed up recommendations for next meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) that Pakistan is proposing to host in Islamabad in May 2024. There are two serious issues as far as the Chinese side is concerned – security of its nationals working on different projects in Pakistan and accumulation of huge circular debt of Chinese power plants. The security concerns emanate from several incidents of terrorism in which Chinese engineers and technicians were targeted while due payments to Chinese independent power producers (IPPs) have surged to Rs. 570 billion and Beijing wants satisfactory resolution of the two issues.
The security issue being of paramount importance, Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has given personal assurances to upgrade security arrangements for Chinese nationals and now they are receiving almost the same security protocol as is given to VIPs. The level of interest and seriousness demonstrated by Pakistan leadership is explained by the declaration of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to personally look into the security issues and arrangements. Another reflection of the firm resolve to ensure foolproof security is reported move of the Punjab Government requiring all projects where Chinese are deployed to procure bullet proof vehicles for their movement. At the same time, Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has announced recruitment of two thousand police personnel for deployment on security of Chinese nationals and projects. As for irritant of pending payments to Chinese IPPs, there are reports that Pakistan would urge the Chinese side to shift power plants from imported to local coal, which would reduce expenditure from existing $1.5b to just $500m and the savings would be used to clear debt of Chinese companies. This seems to be a right proposition to tackle problem of rising circular debt that has become a headache for Pakistan.
After years of hiatus, Pakistan and China agreed on Main Line-I (ML-I) project, which is crucial to accelerate pace of socio-economic progress in the country yet unfortunately its implementation could not be initiated due to some bottlenecks including slow approval processes from relevant forums in Pakistan. This aspect needs to be taken care of without further loss of time as cost could go up significantly in the given scenario. The Minister for Planning has proposed five corridors for future cooperation with China with emphasis on job creation, innovation, green energy and inclusive regional development. Projects under scrutiny include ML-1, Thakot-Raikot Section of KKH, Gwadar Airport, Orange Line and KCR whereas the National Highway Authority is also proposing inclusion of several important infrastructure projects in the framework of CPEC like Mirpur-Muzaffarabad-Mansehra road, Babusar tunnel on N-15 highway, D I Khan-Zhob section on N-50 highway and New Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway. The Prime Minister is expected to visit China sometime in May and efforts should be made by all stakeholders to prepare comprehensive proposals on all of them for discussion and decision during the China visit as these projects would help bring down cost of transportation significantly. Factors and reasons affecting desired pace of implementation of Gwadar-related projects also need urgent attention of the Minister and other relevant forums.
