CPEC projects charging up Pakistan's economic boom amid construction growth.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

Presently, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a household word in Pakistan. It has attained significant milestones through joint efforts of the governments, enterprises, and people of both countries-Pakistan and China. The economists of Pakistan record that the economy of Pakistan was moving towards stabilization. Business confidence was recovering and prices have started settling down, twin deficits were under control and economy was slowly moving towards sustainable growth when the shock of the COVID-19 outbreak hit the economy. As far as the CPEC is concerned it is very important to increase the economic growth of Pakistan.

The economists also mention that the second phase of CPEC would improve the export oriented production capacity that would lead to economic development of Pakistan. It has now entered its second phase, with the planned emphasis shifting from infrastructure development to industrial development, agriculture mechanization, tourism, high-tech finance, and social development. Various Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were going to be organized that could improve Pakistan's productive capacity, expand the exports base, and offer a main impetus for economic and social development by their backward and forward linkages with the rest of the domestic economy.

The Government of Pakistan has carried out various reforms under IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program to improve trade and investments through enhancing business climate. Historically during 2013, the Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), previously One Belt One Road (OBOR). It is an investment program which envisages to improve the economic integration of nearly 70 transcontinental states, representing greater than two-third of world's population, along the route of the historic Silk Road. BRI aims at the connectivity of diverse countries in the Asian, European and African continents along with their adjacent seas. Although it is a worldwide project, it chiefly focuses on the states in Central Asia, Eastern Africa, Eastern Europe, and Middle East. It will develop and strengthen the partnership among these states by composite connectivity networks and independent and sustainable development.

CPEC is a crown jewel of the BRI as it will offer the shortest access to the markets of Central Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe through the deep sea Gwadar port. A research study reveal that a...