CHINA-PAKISTAN
ECONOMIC CORRIDOR
The
china-pakistan Economic Corrridor (CPEC) is considered to be an extension of
china’s ambitious One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR) initiative. It is an economic
corridor involving a collection of projects currently under construction. CPEC
aims to facilitate trade along an overland route that connects Kashgar and
Gwadar, through the construction of a network of highways, and pipelines. The
corrridor is intended to rapidly expand and upgrade pakistani infrastructure,
as well as strengthen the links between pakistan and china.
China is heavily dependent upon
sea-routes that pass through the South China Sea, near the disputed Spratly
Island and Paracel Island, which are currently a source of tension between
Chiina, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the United States. The CPEC
project will allow Chinese energy imports to by-pass these quarrelsome areas
and find a new artery in the west, and thereby decrease the pssibility of
confrontation between the United States and China.
The pakistan media and government
have called CPEC investment a “game and fate changer” for the region China and
Pakistan intend that the massive investment plan will transform pakistan into a
regional economic hub and further boost the deepening ties between the two
countries.
Pakistan currently faces energy
shortfalls and these shortage are a major hindrance to forieng investment and
that chianese investment in pakistani infrastructre and power project will make
the country more attarctive for foreign investment.
This economic corridor will play a
crucial role in regional integration of the greater south asia which includes
china,iran,afghanistan and stretches all the way to mayanmar.the chinese are
not just offering to build much needed infrastructure but also make pakistan a
key partener in its grand economic and strategic ambitions .
The
asian development bank stated “CPEC will conect economic agents along a defined geography. It will provide
connection between economics nodes or hubs, centered on urban landscapes, in
which large amount of economic resources and actors are concertrated. They link
the supply and demand aides of markets.”
China has expressed concern that some separatest
groups in china may be collaborating with insurgents in Pakistan , and has
expressed a desire to strengthen security. Pakistan plans to train 12,000
security personel to protect chinese
workers on the corridor. Presently, 8,000 Pakistani security officials are
deployed for the protection of over 8,100 chinese workers in Pakistan.
Many people in Pakistan still approach CPECwith a
sense of caytias optimism. Nearly all says CPEC is a game changer, but some ask
for whom? In the context of the geopolitical prize that is Gwadar the following
is a simplistic assessment of CPEC :
China finances and builds the project , while Pakistan
pays in terms of social and political description, and the losy of innocent
lives. Given the srategic importance of the Gwadar-Kashgar corridor to china,
this components of OBOR will surely be completed because it is motivated by
more then just economics.
CPEC is about securing china’s trades routes and
allowing it to position itself in the arabian sea.
We believe this partenership with china could be the
key factor that will place Pakistan’s economy on a more sustainable path
forward. As china targets asia, the middle east and africa as part of its
strategy of the 21st century, it simply cannot afford to have an
economically unstable partener in CPEC.
This geopolitical compulsion should generate the
political will to undertake tough economic reforms in pakistan and also insure
that CPEC is sustainable and profitable for the country
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