[image: CPEC vital for China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative: expert]

LONDON: China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPE) is the most important andcentral part of China’s “One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative as thisproject needs a harbour which Pakistan ideally offers in the form of Gwadarport.

Ryan He, Board Member of CPIC and expert on Chinese government and itsinvestments, told this to Pakistani media at a press conference here whichwas organised by CPIC for formally announcing the launch of Gwadar’s firstluxury golf community called “China Pak Golf Estates” for which an MoU forconstruction has been signed with China Civil Engineering ConstructionCorporation (CCECC), the second largest construction and engineering firmin the world.

The press conference was attended by Zeeshaan Shah, expert on Gwadar andPakistan real estate and Board member of China Pak Golf Estates Panel; LordMaxwell Beaverbrook, CPIC’s Board Member; Mark Savage, Chief CommercialOfficer; and Ben Wiseman, Chief Financial Officer.

Ryan said that China decided to invest in the CPEC after long deliberationsand keeping in view all aspects related to Pakistan’s internal dynamics,local and international situation and long-term prospects. He said thatChina needed a harbour for its growth and future trade deals and routewhich Pakistan offered. He said that with China Pak Golf Estate by CPIC,the objective is to help Gwadar build its first social infrastructure tocompliment the huge amount of Chinese investment in the area.

“We are developing multi-cultural, lifestyle communities that are secureand cater to both local and expatriate professionals. Gwadar is at the coreof all the development that’s taking place.” He said that China was facedwith the situation like in the play of Shakespeare and needed to decidewhether “to be or not to be, to invest in Pakistan or not” and in the endit was decided that it was best to invest in Pakistan as that was the realway forward.

Zeeshan Shah explained that the grand golf community worth $265 million issecure and spread across 6.7 million square feet. “It’s a tailor madeproject for both and Chinese professionals working in the flourishing portcity of Gwadar and provides all of the amenities required for a qualitylifestyle, set to become the most desirable lifestyle address in Gwadar.”

Shah said that the CPEC was set to revolutionise Pakistan and alreadymaking a huge impact. “The whole worldis talking about it. We launched‘Emerging Pakistan’ campaign on London’s iconic double-decker buses to sendout the message to the world that Pakistan is safe to invest and Gwadaroffers best returns on investments and investors missing out on investingin Gwadar will regret.

Our Golf Estates project is approved by the Gwadar Development Authority(GDA) and not only that we are investing in building houses but as part ofour corporate responsibility we will be building a network of schools too.

Our project will be based on prime coastal highway location. We are takingour projects to all major cities in the UK (Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchesterand Bradford) early next month to give an opportunity to British Pakistanisand investors here to invest in Gwadar and then we will be moving to China.Our campaign is being led by boxing star Amir Khan.”