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BEIJING – The Gwadar becoming Pakistan’s most important port, is also aspecial economic zone, which is expected to develop into Pakistan’s versionof Shenzhen.
Gwadar Port has opened an industrial park covering several squarekilometers as the first phase of the plan, with many companies eager toenter the park, vice president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences,Huang Renwei said in his article published by Global Times on Thursday.
He said Pakistan planed to open nine industrial parks to attract foreigninvestment, not just from Chinese companies but from companies from allover the world.He is impressed by the China-Pakistan highway, also known as the KarakoramHighway.Construction of the highway began in the 1960s. It was in recent years thatChina and Pakistan started the phase II project involving the extension andrebuilding of the Karakoram Highway.
He said the Chinese companies were doing much infrastructure constructionwork in Pakistan, and they had invested about $19 billion and participatedin more than 20 major projects.
For instance, China Three Gorges Corp and China Gezhouba Group have builtpower stations in Pakistan to solve electricity shortages, while HuaweiTechnologies has helped modernize the country’s communications network.Three Gorges employs more than 40,000 local workers and Huawei employs morethan 20,000.
Although China is helping Pakistan improve its infrastructure under theCPEC program, it is very one-sided to consider the Belt and Road initiative(BRI) as a pure infrastructure promotion plan.
It is worth noting that “hard connectivity” can’t succeed without thesupport of “soft connectivity.”A “hard connectivity” project may take five years, but it may requiredecades to achieve real “soft connectivity.”
Despite close political ties between China and Pakistan, people in the twocountries have had limited contact.With the progress of the CPEC projects, this mutual lack of knowledge maypose problems.
For this reason, China and Pakistan have reached an agreement on newprojects, which must wait until all the current projects are finished andyield economic and social benefits.But this does not mean that all the CPEC-related projects must be halted,as a recent media report claimed.
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Although Pakistan quickly refuted the misleading report, it still arousedgreat concern in the international community.Some Western media have smeared the BRI, using hype about a so-called debttrap.Facts prove that the CPEC is not a debt trap for Pakistan, but offers thefoundation for the country’s modernization.
It is also a driving force for taking China-Pakistan relations to a higherlevel.The $19 billion in funding China has given to Pakistan is not aid, becausemore than $18 billion of that was investment.It should be made clear that investment is not the same as aid.Moreover, aid can be divided into grants and loans, with only the latterrequiring repayment.
In this sense, only a very small portion of the $19 billion can beconsidered as grants, while most of the capital is for pure businessinvestment, he said.Once an investment project is completed, it will not only generate profits– it will also boost local development.
A single project can buoy economic development, and the comprehensivebenefits of economic development may far exceed the original projectinvestment.Those benefits are beyond calculation.In short, talk of a “debt trap” doesn’t make sense. First, it confuses thetwo concepts of investment and aid. Second, it overlooks investmentbenefits. Third, it ignores the macroeconomic benefits of projects.
“From what I learned during my research, Pakistanis are not concerned abouta “debt trap” at all. They are more anxious about the unbalanceddistribution of BRI projects within the country,” he opined.According to a poll conducted by a think tank in Pakistan, 85 percent ofthe respondents expressed support for the CPEC.
The remainder did not oppose the plan, but they did say that they had notseen much impact from CPEC projects.They hoped there would be more such projects in their regions.
The CPEC is the flagship program of the BRI.The success of the CPEC also represents the future success of the BRI.That is why Western media are never tired of smearing the CPEC. – APP
