‘Dropped The Catch’: Pakistani Minister Admits Country Failed To Benefit From CPEC

‘Dropped The Catch’: Pakistani Minister Admits Country Failed To Benefit From CPEC

Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has acknowledged that the country failed to capitalise on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and that Chinese investors were compelled to withdraw due to attempts by the previous government to “scandalise" their projects.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the DataFest Conference organised by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday, Iqbal said Pakistan's economy had repeatedly missed opportunities to take off and “dropped the catch of the game-changer CPEC."

The remarks, reported by The Express Tribune, mark a rare public acknowledgement by a senior cabinet minister that Pakistan has fallen short of achieving CPEC's objectives.

Worth an estimated USD 60 billion, CPEC is a key component of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure strategy spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.

The project was envisioned to connect China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar Port in Balochistan, promising to transform Pakistan's infrastructure and economy.

Iqbal blamed the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for derailing progress, alleging that political opponents attempted to discredit Chinese investments, discouraging investors and halting momentum.

“China stood by Pakistan in difficult times, but political elements tried to scandalise their investment and forced them to leave," Iqbal said.

According to the report, CPEC's progress has significantly slowed since 2018. Fourteen meetings of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC), the project's top decision-making body, have been held so far, but officials admit that “substantive progress" was achieved only until the seventh session in 2017.

While Pakistan has gained short-term benefits from infrastructure projects under CPEC, the long-term vision, particularly the second phase, aimed at relocating Chinese industries to Pakistan and driving export-led industrial growth, has largely stalled.

Even a decade after CPEC's launch, both sides agreed during the last JCC meeting that additional measures were required to operationalise Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and improve supporting infrastructure to attract enterprises.

The Pakistani government, the report added, assured Chinese counterparts that it remains committed to improving the investment climate and introducing facilitation measures to encourage both domestic and foreign companies to invest and operate in SEZs.

Source: News18
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