Govt sets up think tank on CPEC

It will concentrate on six major areas;
ill-founded speculations about China dismissed

ISLAMABAD: First think tank under official supervision for undertaking research on different aspects of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was established with the mandate to go ahead with doing research on six major areas.

Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal inaugurated CPEC Center of Excellence in Islamabad on Monday.

The Centre will conduct research on 6 thematic areas of CPEC including (1) Socio economic impact of CPEC (2) CPEC Trade and Industry Cooperation (3) Regional Connectivity under CPEC (4) Financing & Financial sector integration under CPEC (5) Urban development in Pak under CPEC and (6) Job growth & human resource development.

While speaking on the occasion, China’s Ambassador, Sun Weidong said that supporting Pakistan’s economic sector was an important manifestation of the CPEC. The CPEC, he said, was aimed at modernising Pakistan with four pillars: Energy, Infrastructure, state-of-the-art Gwadar port, and Industrialisation. He hoped that around 11,000MW electricity would be generated as a result of early harvest energy projects under CPEC portfolio.

The Ambassador also referred to positive reports on Pakistan by International Financial Institutions and publications which had noted the economic turnaround of Pakistan. He further said that CPEC Centre of Excellence is going to be an interface that will engage with other research institutions and think tanks with aim to provide technical input for identifying more potential areas for Sino-Pak multi-sectoral cooperation.

However, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said that Centre of Excellence will provide evidence based policy suggestions to extract maximum benefits out of CPEC, serving as guiding star for both our policy makers and business class.

It will integrate and coordinate the institutions engaged in implementing CPEC by ensuring excellent research, utilising modern techniques to help us in policy making and achieving our goal of sustainable growth and development, he added. 

He said the centre is aimed at research in six key areas of CPEC including the socio-economic impact of the project, the trade and industry cooperation, regional connectivity, financial integration, urban development and job opportunities created by the project.

Quoting famous Chinese proverb “When the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills, Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that CPEC is the wind mill being built which has transformed Pakistan’s economic trajectory. He said some countries were feeling insecure due to China’s unprecedented economic development, Pakistan instead considered it as a great opportunity.

“CPEC is an economic big bang which turned Pakistan’s profile from a most dangerous country to a safe haven for billions of dollars of Chinese investment”, he added.

Ahsan Iqbal said 2018 will be the year of completion of many projects under the CPEC, enabling us to overcome energy shortage by generating electricity from multifarious sources.

“About 11,000 Megawatt would be injected into the system from coal, hydel and renewable energy sources just in three years, where more than 50 percent would be contributed from CPEC projects”, he added, saying it is the highest achievement of this government as nothing like that happened in previous 67 years.

He hoped that end of the power shortage, a main bottleneck to economic growth, would lead to boom in industrial sector. “The industry in Pakistan, which suffered badly due to acute power shortage, has witnessed a major change by receiving uninterrupted power supply”, the minister added.

He said under CPEC, biggest and historic development in transport infrastructure sector is being undertaken which would open new economic hubs in less developed and remote part of the country. Besides road project on main routes, 6th JCC has approved link roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu Kashmir and Balochistan which would help in linkages of these less developed areas with urban centres, paving ways for rapid economic growth, he added.

The minister turned down the ill-designed criticism, saying that those who claim that China would prove as a next East India Company are putting forth shallow arguments. “Pak-China relationship is 68 years old and now after CPEC, the friendship is much higher than the stars. So why would China erode this goodwill at the cost of money,” the minister said.

He dispelled the impression that CPEC would create burden and would negatively impact the industrial sector, saying that it will restart Pakistan’s export engine. “We should work closely with Chinese to learn innovative techniques and quality. Industry cooperation would double the capacity of Pakistani enterprises”.

Earlier, Shahid Rasheed newly appointed Executive Director of CPEC Center of Excellence also addressed to the participants. In this Center of Excellence, 32 personnel have been hired as staff and more vacant posts will be filled in weeks and months ahead.