Xi’s visit may usher in massive development

ISLAMABAD: The materialisation of the long-delayed historic and landmark visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a cherished dream about massive development of infrastructure, energy and communication projects especially the flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) come true.
There are no two opinions that the productivity of the visit is undoubtedly a real game-changer. Pakistan has not received such a welcome foreign guest in its history, whose visit will open the floodgates of massive development.
In a country like Pakistan where hardly any foreign investor prefers staking his money for business for a variety of reasons, China’s jump shows that Beijing has complete confidence in Islamabad and its ability to cater to it.
The maturity of the visit has definitely bewildered Pakistan’s overt and covert foes, which made consistent but desperate attempt to frustrate it but failed. It was the determination of Pakistan and China that the extraordinary visit has taken place.
Unfortunately, the sit-ins organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) at the D-Chowk here in August last year created an alarming situation that the Chinese president has to put off his visit to a great embarrassment of Pakistan. Not only the Nawaz Sharif government but people at large made passionate appeals to the two parties to defer their protests for a few days to let the trip take place, but they ignored every sensible plea. The Chinese security team that had then visited Pakistan had recommendation postponement of the scheduled trip.
Not only local elements but some foreign countries including a couple of apparent friends of Islamabad are also strongly inimical to the vast Chinese investment in Pakistan specifically development of Gwadar port as they think that it will offer an alternative facility, which will undermine their importance. The fact that the visit has materialised is a slap on the faces of all those who relentlessly conspired against it.
Conscious of the importance of Balochistan for the CPEC, the present government is working hard to bring about a significant improvement in the law and order situation, which is a major prerequisite.
Undeniably, this enormous investment from China will bring prosperity in Pakistan and create thousands of jobs for locals, who are faced with the problem of mounting unemployment. In the long term, Pakistan’s strategic position will be exceedingly strengthened. This will also push time-tested Pakistan-China friendship to new heights.
Fast progress on the CPEC and several other projects including energy ventures, which are being undertaken with the Chinese investment, is totally ensured in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has a special love for quick development. He has taken immense personal interest in these projects and has allocated his time more than any other task.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was among the first advocates of the CPEC. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nawaz Sharif have become its strong supporters. The CPEC got a fillip during the tenure of the incumbent government as its top leaders have paid a number of visits to China to translate the projects in reality.
The CPEC will serve as a primary gateway for trade between China and the Middle East and Africa. In particular oil from the Middle East could be offloaded at Gwadar and transported to China through Balochistan. Such a link would vastly cut the 12,000-kilometre route that Mideast oil supplies now take to reach Chinese ports.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stated that the CPEC will connect economic agents along a defined geography, and will provide connection between economic hubs, centered on urban landscapes, in which large amount of economic resources and actors are concentrated.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying, the CPEC will serve as a driver for connectivity between South Asia and East Asia.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, Chairman of the Pakistan-China Institute, who takes a special interest in Pak-China relations, has said that the 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 Myanmar.
The CPEC is considered economically vital to Pakistan in helping it drive economic growth. Moody’s Investors Service has described it as a credit positive for Pakistan. It acknowledged that much of the project’s key benefits would not materialise until 2017, but stated that it believes at least some of the benefits from the economic corridor would likely begin accruing even before then.
The CPEC involves development of Gwadar port and the construction of an international airport. It will be carried out by 2017. The Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan and China will also be widened while the rail network between Karachi and Peshawar will be upgraded.
An international wire service has stated that China has promised to invest around $33.8 billion in various energy projects and $11.8 billion in infrastructure projects which will be completed by 2017 at most. The deal includes $622 million for Gwadar port, According to it, under the CPEC agreement; $15.5 billion worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will add 10,400 megawatts of energy to the national grid of Pakistan.