Pakistan upbeat after 'One Belt One Road' summit success

The success of the Beijing 'One Belt One Road' Summit has made Chinese President Xi Jingping and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif happy. Xi floated the idea of the OBOR Summit three years after he and Sharif launched the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and Pakistan started implementing it. Sharif got involved in 2013 when he came into power for the third time and agreed to President Xi's plans to implement the CPEC with Chinese public and private sector funding of more than $71 billion.

"The CPEC has received the biggest funding amount in the world. If Pakistan can manage this huge investment in our key sectors, it will prove to be a game changer," said Sharif.

Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan's Minister for Planning and in charge of CPEC projects, said the CPEC's impact on gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be around 1.5 per cent which will create 1.5 million jobs.

"On the surface, about 1.41 million net employment has already been created in the first two years of the Pakistan Muslim League government. It makes a total of 2.91 million new jobs for Pakistanis."

"Investment in the CPEC is expected to be over $50 billion. Such a huge inflow will generate massive economic activities and employment opportunities," Iqbal added.

Pakistan's debt and other repayments will peak at around $5 billion in 2022, but will be offset by transit fees charged on the new transport corridor, said Nadeem Javaid, chief economist of the government. These annual transport fees will bring in an additional $1.75 billion to $2 billion a year, after repaying the Chinese loans for the CPEC.

China had originally pledged an investment of $57 billion in infrastructure, energy, transport and other key areas, but later additions have increased it to $71.5 billion.

The CPEC should boost economic growth which is expected to hit 5.2 per cent in 2016-17 that ends on June 30. Exports should also pick up once CPEC-built power projects provide additional electricity and reduce power outages which have hit industrial output.

President Xi called on the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, international development institutions and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to deepen cooperation in knowledge sharing, development financing and country-level coordination through institutional interaction.

President Xi called on world leaders to "abandon old models based on rivalry and diplomatic power games". "We should build an open platform of cooperation and grow an open world economy. The OBOR is the new way to boost the global economy," he said.

President Xi pledged a major funding boost to the New Silk Road, including an extra 100 billion yuan into the existing Silk Road fund, 380 billion yuan in loans from two policy banks and 60 billion yuan in aid to countries and international agencies in nations along the new trade route.

The writer is based in Islamabad. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.

Source: Khaleej Times