Discovering infrastructure and real estate development under CPEC.

Byline: Urooj Aijaz

Infrastructure development is one of the main pillars of economic growth of any economy and China Pakistan Economic Corridor being one of the largest project of its kind witnessed the transformational change in almost every sector of Pakistan's economy and like other sectors it also brought revolutionary change in real estate and infrastructure of Pakistan through linkage of Gwadar and Kashgar. This linkage, change the dynamics of real estate and it is the time that foresee the increasing trend of this sector, which is obviously transformed into employment opportunities and development of allied industries in near future.

CPEC impacts Pakistan real estate through improving income per capita at (purchasing power parity). Pakistan is spending more than one billion rupees on the improvement in the quality of roads that can increase per capita income of the people by Rs.371 on a permanent basis as spending on infrastructure can bring out the people from the absolute poverty and in my opinion this mechanism is more powerful than subsidies and transfer payments, because it provides a sustainable solution of the poverty.

CPEC provides the doable modes of resources to develop the required infrastructure. This corridor connects Muslim dominated city in eastern China-Kashgar with Gwadar port in Pakistan. The construction of this port at a strategically important town of Gwadar is in progress. The port is projected to be the hub of an energy and trade corridor to and from China and the Central Asian republics. Gwadar is strategically located on the western end of Baluchistan coast on the opposite end of the Gulf of Oman, which is an important route for oil-tankers bound for Japan and western countries out of Gulf.

From Pakistani point of view, the development of Gwadar free port is one of the major strategies to revolutionize the economic growth of Pakistan. It is in fact, a multi-dimensional strategy, which covers the international linkages in trade and investment. Since outflow of goods from western China and Central Asia reaching Gwadar passes through this overland trade route, Pakistan could earn millions of dollars a year in terms of port and cargo handling charges. There are also freight charges for import cargoes and export goods.

Now, CPEC is recognized by its policy makers as the 'only' source to accelerate economic growth in the shortest time. World Bank has indicated that poor availability of electricity is a main...