PPP’s China tour: CPEC termed a ‘bumper crop’

Agreement signed for Karachi’s Rs14b Yellow Line project with Chinese firm

BEIJING: A leading Chinese think-tank on Thursday said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was an “early harvest” and it should be allowed to complete as a “bumper crop”.

“China knows that the Pakistani government and parliament are competent enough to see the CPEC through its completion and resolve the differences,” said Professor Dong Manyuan, vice-president, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), during a meeting with the visiting delegation of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He said when such development projects were started in China in the past, provinces had differences of views, but when the projects were completed, the “whole nation benefitted”.



PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, who is leading the delegation, said PPP’s investment in the CPEC is not a one-off event. “For us it is an on-going process. Under the CPEC is a $2 billion joint venture to energise Thar Coal, located in Sindh.



“We also appreciate that Beijing has extended support for other projects that Pakistan has been involved with under our leadership. With China’s exclusive entry in the important IP project, regional energy trade can take a critical turn.”

The senator also lauded Beijing’s “stepping up to the leadership plate while older economies reel from shock, and others look inwards, taking stock. The future really does lie in peace through economic partnerships. Let us hope our roadmaps take our young people into a brighter, energised, connected millennium”.

Associate Research Fellow at CIIS Lan Jianxue said the CPEC was an umbrella for development and it would benefit the entire Pakistan.



Later, an agreement was signed for the construction of Yellow Line Bus Project as part of the Karachi Mass Transit Programme, which will be completed in two years.

The Rs14.4 billion project is a joint venture of the Sindh government and the China Urban Electric Company. Of Sindh government will bear  14% of the project cost,  the Chinese company 16% and the remaining 70% will come through  loans from Chinese financial institutions.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.