ISLAMABAD – Senate Special Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) was informed on Thursday that Pakistan was the first recipientcountry of newly formed Chinese aid agency State International DevelopmentCooperation Agency (SIDCA) under which China would provide grant of US $1billion for various projects of socioeconomic uplift of Pakistan.
Briefing the committee, Secretary Planning Zafar Hassan said China wouldprovide grant of $1 billion in two stages and under the first stage, thecountry would invest $200 to $300 million in 16 small social projects,which would be completed within a year while the rest amount would beissued in three years time.
The meeting of the committee was presided over by its Chairperson SenatorSherry Rehman which was also attended by Minister for Planning, Developmentand Reform Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar.
The meeting was informed that under the fast track phase, China would helpPakistan in establishing China Pakistan Joint Agricultural TechnicalLaboratory (cotton, palm oil etc), smart class rooms project for highereducation (50-100), overseas student scholarships programme (20,000),provision of healthcare equipment, Gwadar hospital project, Balochistansolar powered lighting equipment (10,000 house holds), Gwadar desalinationplant, Pakistan vocational schools equipment upgrading and renovationproject (50 centers), and others.
The secretary said the provinces had been asked to provide details of theirrespective projects so that those projects could be finalized with theChinese side. He said that a Chinese delegation was visiting Pakistan nextmonth in this regard.
Sherry Rehman however was not convinced with the Chinese model and askedthe ministry to renegotiate with the Chinese side and review the prioritysectors. “Except few, most of the projects in fast track phase of ChineseSIDCA model are not convincing,” she said adding instead of wasting moneyon such projects, the government should add some new projects of moreimportance.
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Secretary Planning assured the committee that they would convince theChinese side in this regard to review the priority list. Senator Usman KhanKakar said Balochistan was the least developed area and yet it was notbeing given due attention. He said Balochistan needs water, so priorityshould be on allocating more funds for building small dams. He said not asingle energy project was installed in the province under CPEC despitebeing the most suitable area for installing wind and solar energy.
Minister Khusro Bakhtyar said the government was focusing on development ofless developed areas specially Balochistan which is evident from theallocation of funds under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP)2019-20. He said the government had already started land acquisition forthe 300 kilometer Quetta-Zob highway which is also part of Western Rout ofCPEC.
The minister said that Rs9 billion had been earmarked for the road in PSDP2019-20. He said in Gwadar, the government had also allocated a heftyamount for building transmission lines from Gwadar to connect the 300MWpower plant to be built in the city with the national grid.
