CHINA-PAKISTAN: CPEC
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to travel to Pakistan around May or June this year. The NDRC has asked Pakistan to convene the 10th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting under the CPEC framework ahead of schedule to prepare a plan for the execution of a bunch of mega projects coinciding with Xi Jinping’s visit. Reports add that “approximately 38.4 percent funds have been released from July 2019 to 17 January 2020 for projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – 11.52 percent lower than the 50 percent pledged for the first half of the fiscal year. The government budgeted Rs 95.73 billion in the ongoing year for 31 CPEC projects at a total estimated cost of Rs 1.62 trillion under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and has so far released Rs 36.84 billion." A landmark development related to CPEC this week is that the Gwadar port has begun handling transit cargo headed to and from Afghanistan. Voice of America reports “Kabul has traditionally relied on Pakistani overland routes and the two main southern seaports of Karachi and Port Qasim for international trade under a bilateral deal with Islamabad, known as the Afghan- Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA). The recent Chinese financial and construction efforts, though, have activated the strategically located Arabian Sea deep-water port of Gwadar, which offers a much shorter overland link, particularly to southern regions of Afghan, for the rapid delivery of goods." |