*KARACHI – The* trade amounting to almost $2.5 trillion is going to berouted through various corridors and Pakistan sits at the epicentre of allthis activity,” Analysts have revealed.

“With the Belt and Road Initiative, there is expectation that trade isgoing to double, quadruple or rise even further.”

China’s investment of over $60 billion in Pakistan’s infrastructure andpower projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) isexpected to increase Pakistan’s economic growth by around 3.5 percentagepoints, said Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) CEO Shahzad Dada onThursday.

“CPEC projects are estimated to contribute around 3.5 percentage points toPakistan’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth once they are fullydelivered,” he emphasised while speaking at an event in Karachi.

Dada noted that most of the Chinese companies investing in Pakistan underCPEC were clients of the bank and Standard Chartered was itself involved infinancing some of the projects as well.

*ECC approves Rs17.5 billion supplementary budgetlink*

Early harvest projects under CPEC are expected to be completed in thecurrent calendar year. Later, short-term projects are anticipated to becompleted by 2022, medium-term projects by 2025 and long-term projects by2030 and beyond.

Pakistan achieved a 13-year high GDP growth of 5.8% in FY18. However, thegrowth is expected to slow down to around 4.4% in the current fiscal yearand 4.1% in FY20, according to Fitch Solutions.

Dada highlighted that Chinaand Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding for investment of over$60 billion, of which infrastructure and power projects worth over $30billion were under way. CPEC is part of China’s wider Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI).

“We have discussed trade amounting to almost $2.5 trillion which is goingto be routed through various corridors and Pakistan sits at the epicentreof all this activity,” he pointed out. “With the Belt and Road Initiative,there is expectation that trade is going to double, quadruple or rise evenfurther.”