ISLAMABAD – Will the US China tech war impact Pakistan China CPEC Projects?
While the US has blacklisted the telecom giant Huawei amid its trade warwith Chinalink,many tech savvies are worried that whether this ban will affect Chineseprojects in other emerging Asian countries.
Similarly, Pakistanis are also eager to know what will happen to theChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other related tech projectswhich are associated with Huawei in Pakistan. As a relief to this distrust,Sher Ali Arbab, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on CPEC, hasassured that Huawei’s projects in Pakistan will not be affected due to theUS-China tensions.
In a recent interview with *Geo News, *chairman CPEC committee said thatthe US-China tech-war, and the US blacklisting Huawei, will have noimplications on the Pak-China business projects. As he stated that;
*“Huawei, as you may know, is the official partner of Pakistan in the SafeCity projects, fiber-optic cable project, and other CPEC-relatedundertakings. All the equipment, we are using, are made in China. Huaweidoes not depend on other countries to manufacture its products. So, therewill be no effect on our market.”*
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Moreover, Arbab also pointed out that in coming years, we will see “agradual de-escalation in the US-China conflict”, as he thinks that thewhole world is following the modern trends moving towards connectivity andtrade, instead of following the path of war and confrontation.
After the recent ban on Huaweilinkthe Trump administration, many US-based tech giants including Google hasreportedly warned their government that banning Huawei will also not bodewell for US national security. The whole matter has now become extremelydelicate because the Trump administration, through its brinkmanshiptactics, has destabilized the entire relationship, commercial and otherwise.
Meanwhile, CPEC is turning into an economic reality rapidly as out of 43confirmed projectslink atthe beginning of the corridor, more than 20 have been completed or underconstruction. Tech companies like Huawei which have already established agood working relationship with Pakistani govt would certainly createemployment opportunities in the forthcoming project.
