Four wheels good

Pakistan as with most nations can be viewed through a variety of prisms, and a different aspect seen through each. For many, particularly looking in from the outside the view is often negative. A land of terrorists and bombs and bullets and extremist rants. If not a failed state now then a failed state of the future. Seen from inside all of the above are at various times visible but they are far from being the whole story. This is not a failed state, and long-term existential threats aside that are primarily environmental, shows no sign of being so in the foreseeable future.

The Chinese have a global vision a part of which encompasses Pakistan, and the One Belt-One Road (OBOR) initiative has its local iteration in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The cumulative effect of CPEC is going to be increased prosperity for millions and those millions are going to want personal transport. The demand for four-wheeled vehicles is going to rise steadily according to a report by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA); rising to about 0.5 million a year over the next 12 years. Opportunities for the automotive sector are going to be spin-offs of CPEC. The roads (and rails) to service CPEC are going to spawn warehousing and freight forwarding services as well as other ancillaries.

The Chinese are not the only ones to have a quickening interest in local developments, and the Japanese have noted that ‘automotive’ is one of the fastest growing sectors and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has recently visited the SMEDA Sindh office to ‘explore new areas of assistance’. Trends in consumerism are moving fast, and not only in the automotive sector. Japan has long had a close association with Pakistan and now finds itself alongside China seeking to explore business and trading opportunities. All this activity is indicative of a state that is in increasingly good health notwithstanding a range of systemic deficits that are long overdue for a fix. The coming decade as noted before in these columns presents unparalleled opportunities for Pakistan and care must be taken not to drown opportunity in a toxic backwash of politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2017.

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