ISLAMABAD – The World Bank Group (WBG) on the protest of Pakistan hasremoved a controversial map from its report titled “The Web of TransportCorridors in South Asia”.
Former Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal on March22, 2018 had protested with the WBG for not showing Northern Areas (AzadJammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan) in the map of Pakistan in thepresence of Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan during the launchingceremony of this report tiled “The Web of Transport Corridors in SouthAsia”.
The report was published by the Asian Development Bank, United Kingdom’sDepartment for International Development, Japan International CooperationAgency and the World Bank.
Lead Economist WBG Martin Melecky was presenting an overview of the report,during which Iqbal had noticed that Pakistani map was incomplete and saidthat Kashmir was not there. Later, the officials assured him and announcedthat they would revisit the report. The report was also not uploaded on itswebsite. However, the amended report uploaded on its website, does notshowing the controversial map.
About the Report
The report states that China has committed over $45 billion to constructinfrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)Agreement, with funding from Chinese banks and corporations focused onenergy (75 percent of the total committed) and roads/ports/railways (25percent of the total). Usually, the loans are based on a sovereignguarantee (for example, in the case of province-level transport projects);on a repayment guarantee for project loans from domestic banks with anacceptable credit rating guaranteeing the repayment of project loans; or ona repayment guarantee from a Chinese sponsor that holds majority ownershipin the infrastructure project. To date, few such loans have been extendedon a project finance basis.
Transport corridors offer enormous potential to boost South Asia’s economicgrowth, reduce poverty, and spur job creation, provided the new traderoutes spread their benefits broadly and limit negative environmentalimpacts, says the report.
The report argues that the many transport corridors proposed across Asiawould cost trillions of dollars to implement, far exceeding the financingresources available.
Hence, countries need to prioritize the most promising corridors that willdeliver transformative impacts on economies and people – or, in the termsof the title of the report, will offer wider economic benefits. And whileengineering designs and geopolitical considerations are important factorsin the decision, sound economic analysis is key to designing trulysuccessful corridors, the report notes.
“The largest economic gains from investing in transport corridors may arisefrom urbanization and job creation around this new infrastructure, ratherthan from many more vehicles using it,” said one of the report’s authors,World Bank lead economist Martin Melecky, who added: “Corridor investmentsinvolve significant tradeoffs and are not all equally successful increating large economic surpluses that spread fairly throughout society.”
The Report conducts illustrative appraisals of three major transportcorridors in South Asia. These are the completed Golden Quadrilateral andNorth-South-East-West highway systems in India; the planned China-PakistanEconomic Corridor in Pakistan; and the anticipated Kolkata-Dhaka transportcorridor between India and Bangladesh.
The importance of complementary interventions is also revealed bysimulations for the prospective China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) inPakistan. These simulations suggest that the proposed corridors could havewidely diverse impacts on household expenditures, poverty, the inclusion ofwomen in the labor market, and air pollution.