MAGICAL BUSINESS&COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES AT GWADER PORT ARE BOOMING PAK ECONOMY.FOREIGN/ LOCAL INVESTMENT ANYWHERE IN PAKISTAN IS A VERY POSITIVE SIGN.

BY THE GRACE OF aLLAH AN ECONOMIC BOOM IS SURGING IN PAKISTAN THROUGH GWADER PORT.EXPERTS &OFFICIALS BELIEVE THAT THE VAST TRANSPORT INFRA- STRUCTURE OF THE CHINA-PAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR (CPEC) AND ITS GWADAR PORT WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN THE COUNTRY'S PURSUIT OF ITS GOAL ESPECIALLY AT THE TIME WHEN IT HAS STARTED ENHANCING TRADE TIES WITH LANDLOCKED AFGHANISTAN AND THE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES.CPEC FACILITATES PAKISTAN'S PURSUIT OF BECOMING REGIONAL TRANSSHIPMENT HUB. 

1 .Launched in 2013, the CPEC is a corridor linking Gwadar port with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport and industrial cooperation. According to the data recently released by the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, a total of 46 CPEC projects are under construction or have been completed, and the corridor has brought 25.4 billion U.S. dollars in foreign direct investment to Pakistan and created 75,000 jobs for the locals, serving as a focal point for China and Pakistan to drive practical cooperation.CPEC's other transport infrastructure projects including the Karakoram Highway Phase Two and the Sukkur-Multan Motorway "have connected different provinces of Pakistan in a modern and better way, facilitating transportation, trade and people's travel. Facing the Arabian Sea, Gwadar port, one of the pillars of the CPEC, in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, has made a series of achievements including the inauguration of liner services, Afghan transit trade and liquefied petroleum gas business, and is sailing towards the dream of becoming a "New Dubai" in Pakistan.Last year when the COVID-19 epidemic was raging across Pakistan, batches of Chinese engineers and workers took chartered flights back to Pakistan to join their Pakistani counterparts in the CPEC construction, for the common goal of completing the construction on time.As the first one of its kind being implemented, the Rashakai special economic zone in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is pushing forward its construction and inviting investors, along with the building of the first factory invested by a Chinese company in the zone

2 .Objectives .

THE China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is being jointly constructed by Pakistan and China with the Chinese investment of US $ 62 billion, being built in Pakistan to connect the Kashgar city of China with the Gwadar Port of Pakistan. The project comprises a network of facilities and activities

• CPEC facilitates Pakistan's pursuit of becoming regional transshipment hub
• Developing Gwader Sea Port as the Logistic Hub of South Asia.
• Energy-producing Plants.
• Roads, Railways, Air/Dry Ports.
• Fiber Optic Lines for Communications.
• Special Industrial Economic Zones.
• Agricultural Modernization Programs,
• Multidimensional Geostrategic Defense Location.
• Creation of employments and job opportunities for the Baluchistan.

   3 .BENEFITS .The CPEC will:-

• ·Interconnect China, Central Asian Republics (CARs), Russia, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa through the warm waters of the Arabian Sea for facilitating trade, investment, tourism, and the exchange of labor.
• Will cut short Beijing’s trade routes with the world through sea approximately by 12,000 miles.
• Will enable the people of this region and other regions to harvest common benefits, kill poverty, and bring prosperity, within the context of Chinese President, Xi Jinping’s concept of the shared destinies, by building strong roots to take economic growth to the next level in the two countries and across the regions.
• Will help in preserving peace at the regional and global levels.
• Generation of thousands of job opportunities and multiple business activities

4. Timeline The project is to be completed in three phases, Phase-1 by 2020, Phase-II by 2015, and Phase-III by 2030.

• Phase-I is meant to address the key economic bottlenecks namely energy and infrastructure
• Phase-II is about industrialization, socio-economic and agricultural cooperation, and promoting business.
• Phase-III includes long-term projects, like the laying of a network of pipelines to transport liquefied natural gas and oil, including a $2.5 billion pipeline between Gwadar and Nawabshah to eventually transport gas from Iran.In Phase-III, the government also plans to add new sectors, including iron, mines and minerals, oil and gas sector, copper, textiles, and automobile sectors to exploit the potential of trade through CPEC. China is ready to invest $10 billion in the oil and gas sector and $4 billion in the local steel sector through CPEC projects.
• By 2025, the CPEC served industrial, agriculture, and services sectors would be working efficiently to enhance Pakistan’s economic growth, create many employment opportunities for its people to kill poverty, and bring prosperity.
• By 2030, with the completion of the CPEC projects, its full potential will be used to achieve sustainable economic growth in Pakistan and the neighboring regions for the benefit of their people.
• Finally, the CPEC supported boost in exports and forex reserves on a sustainable basis shall also help Pakistan in paying back its foreign loans, further strengthening its conventional defense capabilities and raising its strategic importance at the regional and world levels.

 5. Progress. As under:-

• The Gwadar port is fully functional. Most importantly, the Gwadar Smart Port City Master Plan for the integrated development of the city has been approved by the government and is ready for implementation In Phase-1, a total of 1544 KM roads have been constructed and 1456 KM is under construction.
• In the energy sector, 5320 MW of electricity has been added to the national grid, while work on seven projects with 4170 MW power projects is nearing completion. Additional projects of 2844 MW are planned.
• 820 km long cross border optical fiber laying projects, linking Khunjerab to Rawalpindi have been completed.
• In Gwadar, 10 projects in infrastructure and social sector development have either been completed or are under construction.
• The New Gwadar International Airport’s groundbreaking ceremony has already been held.
• Currently, the focus is on industrialization, socio-economic development, agriculture modernization, blue economy, tourism promotion, and upgrading of the Railway Line from Karachi to Peshawar (MLI project).
• The development of three special SEZs, namely; Rashakai, M3 Faisalabad, and Dhabeji Thatta is being done on a priority basis.
• The completed energy projects have already helped meet the power shortage in the country, to a large extent, by reducing the duration of load-shedding and enhancing industrial and agriculture production, and also increased the working hours of the services sector

6. FAKHR-e- PAKISTAN. In view of the foregoing, it is not only important to stick to the schedule of the completion of the CPEC, rather there is a need to fast track its development to bring its benefits to Pakistan and its people, which is necessary for the country’s quick economic revival and alleviation of poverty. The fast-tracking of the development of the CPEC will accrue the following specific benefits:

• ·As a result, the country’s productivity and exports have considerably increased, thus raising its forex reserves from USD 16.7 billion in August 2018 to USD 23.2 billion in May 2021.
• The annual revenue from toll collection from the CPEC is projected to be around $5 billion by 2022, which would ease the balance of payment issues and help in paying off the debt to China.
• While the CPEC will create 2.3 million jobs between 2015 and 2030 for the Pakistanis, it will also raise Pakistan’s annual economic growth (GDP) by about 2 to 2.5 percent.
• Regarding the infrastructure regardless of who started any project, most of them have been completed by the current government. Special economic zones including Rashakai, Dhabeji, Allama Iqbal Industrial City and Gawadar Industrial Zones are attracting foreign and local investors. It was also told that Chinese are expanding cooperation in agriculture sector and livestock as well.
• Imran Khan also directed to prepare the youth to take up new jobs being created by the incoming industry and high quality agriculture farms. The prime minister was briefed on the progress of the ongoing projects, in various sectors, under the umbrella of the CPEC.
• The current government not only completed the ongoing projects started by the previous government, but was able to complete large number of significant projects in just two and a half years.
• Apart from the government's efforts to provide accessibility to the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan to the Pakistani ports, Pakistani private traders also show a great interest in Central Asia to import raw materials and commodities from there at a lower cost as compared to other international markets.

7. The CPEC has brought to Pakistan's transport infrastructure and Gwadar port can facilitate trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries, which will in turn tap the full potential of the corridor, CPEC as a far-sighted project, & Gwadar port can provide Central Asian countries with ideal access to the sea, which will further strengthen interconnectivity and cooperation for common development of the whole region. “We are inviting investors from all over the world to come and put up industry in those special economic zones. This will help increase our exports, help our economy and give more jobs to our youth," Chairman of Pakistan's CPEC Authority Asim Saleem Bajwa said,Pakistan also pins high hope on the CPEC and Gwadar port in particular to transform itself into a regional trade hub. .We are desperately wanting a peaceful route to Central Asia and after there is peace in Afghanistan, we are pinning hope on the connectivity enhanced by CPEC to help us find new markets. Because currently our major export markets are the European Union (EU) where Pakistan is sending its products under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status, but we need to find more markets for our products. Pakistan's current exports to EU countries are over 6 billion U.S. dollars annually and the textile sector contributes to a large part of it.

8 .The best thing about CPEC with the Central Asian countries is the land routes, which currently suits us the best because the charges of sea freight in Pakistan has increased and if the GSP+ status is not secured, we will be transporting it to the Central Asian countries on a much cheaper cost via CPEC infrastructure, and in the future we will seek new markets from the Gwadar port onwards.In the future, opportunities are coming to Pakistan under CPEC, and with peace in Afghanistan we need to give a new direction to CPEC as a policy to enhance connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asia. Calling Pakistan's trade initiative with Uzbekistan under the TIR a new beginning, the vision is to make the whole Central Asian countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan an integrated unit in terms of trade, "and CPEC will play an important role for that purpose." Pakistan is looking to import cotton bales from the Central Asian countries, which are available at a cheaper price since Pakistan's textile industry is booming and there is an acute shortage of raw material because cotton production in the country has decreased and the Central Asian countries are rich in cotton which can be used in Pakistan once the trade relations with them enhance.

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