China asks state-owned companies to invest, transfer tech to Pakistan under CPEC

Islamabad: Dr Li Jing Feng, director, Regional Studies and Strategic Research Centre, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, has said that China asked its state-owned companies to invest in Pakistan and transfer technology to Pakistan under CPEC.

Dr Li was answering questions at a roundtable on “BCIM-EC & CPEC within China’s Belt-and-Road-Initiatives” organised by Institute of Regional Studies here Monday. Dr Rukhsana Qamber, president of IRS, conducted the proceedings.

Dr Li said that we also train local workers here to start from ground zero in the journey to value added products. Answering another question, Gawadar is more important than Chabahar port as it is a deep sea port and bigger ships cannot dock in the Iranian port.

He observed that Chinese being killed in Pakistan are of extreme concern for China.Earlier, in his talk, Dr Li focused his discussion on BCIM economic corridor and compared it with CPEC. He said that due to Indian reservations, the Bangladesh China India Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) would not be successful although both Bangladesh and Myanmar were in favour of it. On the other hand, CPEC would be successful for a number of reasons, the main one being the strong understanding and mutual trust that exists between Pakistan and China, he said adding that Gawadar is developing and would ultimately become a developed city. He was also aware of the negative feelings on CPEC that have been aired in various fora.

Mr Annice Mahmood formerly from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics said that like China, Pakistan should export its surplus produce to rectify its balance of payment deficit. He said that remittances to Pakistan are from unskilled workers but still we are getting something. He said Russia tried to help us stand on our feet but we did not respond. India responded and got the dividend. He said instead of getting profit and paying back but not much was done to create self-reliance and promote self- sustained growth within the country.

Mr Annice said where the money from remittances is going, we don’t know. He said that US fears aggressive Chinese investments in other countries.In her concluding remarks, Dr Qamber said that in principle China does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and, therefore, prevents development of possible anti-China feelings.