BEIJING – Terming the current novel coronavirus epidemic’s impact astemporary, a Chinese scholar believed that the construction of ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will continue to advance smoothly asplanned.
“The epidemic situation in China has now been effectively controlled. Soeven if there’s a little impact, it’s temporary. I believe that after theshort-term difficulties, the construction of the CPEC will continue toadvance smoothly as planned,” according to an article by Cheng Xizhong, avisiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Lawpublished in China Economic Net on Wednesday.
He said the CPEC is the pilot and flagship project of the Belt and the Roadand both China and Pakistan attach great importance to the continuousdevelopment of the CPEC.
“Some people with ulterior motives in the international community aredeliberately amplifying the impact of the epidemic on the construction ofthe corridor, because they do not want to see the smooth progress of theconstruction of the corridor. So, we should keep high vigilance,” he added.
Objectively speaking, in the short term, the construction of the CPEC willbe affected to some extent by the serious epidemic. For example, someChinese technicians of the CPEC projects returned to China during theChinese Spring Festival, and some of them have to postpone their return toPakistan because of China’s efforts to control population movements andprevent the spread of the epidemic.
However, the epidemic situation in China has now been effectivelycontrolled. So even if there’s a little impact, it’s temporary. I believethat after the short-term difficulties, the construction of the CPEC willcontinue to advance smoothly as planned.
He said the first phase of the construction of the CPEC has been verysuccessful. After 22 major energy and transportation infrastructureprojects have been put into operation, Pakistan’s socio-economicdevelopment will hopefully be on the track of rapid development.
With the successful experience in the first stage, China and Pakistan arejointly promoting the construction of the second stage.
Recently, the Pakistani government has approved the establishment of 10special economic zones in the four provinces. At the same time, due to thecontinuous improvement of the business environment in Pakistan, foreigninvestment in Pakistan has increased significantly.
In the first seven months of the fiscal year 2020, foreign directinvestment in Pakistan reached 1.56 billion U.S. dollars with an increaseof 66% over the same period of the previous fiscal year.
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Now, on one hand, China is strictly controlling the epidemic, and on theother hand, China is speeding up the production resumption. If Pakistan cantake effective measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic, I believethe CPEC construction will not be affected.
He said currently, the epidemic situation of new coronavirus in China hasbeen effectively contained, but the prevention and control measures cannotbe relaxed.
However, the epidemic is spreading rapidly around the world. The countrieswith the most severe outbreaks are South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan.World Health Organization has raised the novel coronavirus global risklevel from the previous “high” to “very high”.
At this moment, the epidemic situation in South Asia is not very serious.However, all the countries in South Asia, including Pakistan, Afghanistan,Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, have confirmedcases.
The epidemic is spreading all over the world and the situation is notoptimistic. Therefore, all countries should strengthen prevention andcontrol measures.
Pakistan is now facing two major challenges, one is the global spread ofthe epidemic, and the other is that neighboring Iran in the west is seeingcontinuous increase in the number of new novel coronavirus infections.
I have noticed that Pakistan has taken some measures to control the borderport with Iran in view of the rapid spread of the epidemic in Iran. Anisolation ward has been set up at the border port between Pakistan and Iranand necessary equipment has been installed to take travelers’ temperature.
In addition, Pakistan has installed equipment at major airports across thecountry, building the first defense line against the coronavirus. I thinkas long as the government and people of Pakistan attach great importance toprevention, Pakistan can effectively curb the spread of the epidemic.
