According to a report published by China Economic Net (CEN), Chinesescholar Prof. Cheng Xizhong stated that the construction of CPEC hasentered a new stage of high-quality development, which will continue toplay an important role in pushing forward Pakistan’s efforts to improve thesocio-economic life of its people.
A large number of projects have been completed, bringing about more than$25 billion direct investment to Pakistan.
Prof. Cheng stated, “China and Pakistan have jointly overcome challengesand promoted CPEC’s construction and have not withdrawn engineers workingon CPEC projects nor laid off Pakistani workers since the outbreak ofCOVID-19 in Pakistan. Therefore, CPEC has made gratifying progress.
China and Pakistan will complete the projects under construction in time,create more jobs for Pakistanis, vigorously improve people’s livelihood,strengthen cooperation in industrial parks construction, human resourcetraining, poverty alleviation, medical and health care, agriculture andother fields, and continuously release the great potential of CPEC andrealize common development and progress.
CPEC, the important pilot project of “Belt and Road” and a landmark projectof China-Pakistan cooperation, has made significant progress for last 5years.
On December 16, the final Take-over Certificate (TOC) issuing ceremony ofPeshawar-Karachi Motorway (PKM) Project (Sukkur-Multan section), thelargest transportation infrastructure project of the CPEC undertaken byChina State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), was held inMultan, marking a formal opening to traffic and a perfect implementation ofthe project.
At present, the completed projects have greatly improved Pakistan’stransportation infrastructure and power supply, created more than 70,000jobs for Pakistanis, contributed 1 to 2 percentage points to Pakistan’s GDPgrowth every year, and significantly promoted Pakistan’s economic andsocial development and people’s well-being.
The PKM highway project is the abbreviation of Peshawar-Karachi Expressway.The expressway starts from Karachi in the south, passes through Hyderabad,Sukkur, Multan, Lahore, Islamabad and other cities, and ends at Peshawar inthe north, with a total length of 1,152 km.
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PKM was originally planned to start from Karachi, Pakistan’s largest cityin the south, and reach Lahore, the second largest city in the north. Nowit is planned to extend to Peshawar, an important city in the northwestborder.
GDP of the areas along the project accounts for more than 90% of the totalamount of Pakistan, with a population of 138 million. After completion, itwill become an economic artery connecting the northern and southern part ofPakistan.
CSCEC has undertaken the PKM project (Sukkur-Multan section) in EngineeringProcurement Construction (EPC) contract mode, and Export-Import Bank ofChina has provided financial support.
The total length of the project is 392 km; the design speed is 120 km/hwith two-way six lanes; the contract period is 36 months; the contractvalue is about $2.889 billion.
Recently, Metairie-Lahore transmission line, a key project of CPEC, wasfully connected, further improving Pakistan’s power supply system.
On October 25, Orange Line Metro in Lahore was officially opened and putinto operation, bringing Pakistan into the era of subway. Gwadar Port hashandled two batches of fertilizer with a total of 26,000 tons transferredto Afghanistan.”