Chinese investment: Zardari cautions govt on corridor issue

Asks govt to take all the stakeholders on board to secure multi-billion Chinese investments

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has cautioned the government to be careful about Chinese investment, advising it not to let it become a controversial issue in the country as it could derail the investment plans.

A source close to him cited Zardari as saying, “Chinese are very shy investors; let’s not give them reasons to be sceptical about the future of their investments.”

Zardari held a huddle of political parties recently that was also participated by the government. The meeting was also used as a platform to give a word of caution to the government regarding the rising concerns about the realignment of the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project which is to be established from Gwadar to Khunjerab.



Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) politicians have already raised concerns that the major road networks have been planned through the province of Punjab while earlier those had to pass through the relatively less developed areas of Baluchistan and K-P.

The government is considering taking all the stakeholders on board through various platforms.

During the two-day official visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping a number of agreements and MoUs were signed including power generation through coal, solar energy, road infrastructure and economic and technical cooperation.

A host of  economic observers feel that while on paper there is a lot of potential but Pakistan will have to tread the path carefully to make all this materialise.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.