The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was launched close to 10 years ago, but it is struggling to meet its envisaged expectations. The CPEC is a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but many of its components have been marred by slow implementation, making them infeasible and unviable. Several thermal power, hydroelectric, transport infrastructure, and special economic zone projects have not become operational yet.
The CPEC fiasco was acknowledged by Pakistani Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal recently. He did not just accept that the CPEC had lost steam but also said that the progress had regressed by at least 10 years.[1] While Islamabad has its own concerns, the Chinese have blamed Pakistan for the delays in CPEC project construction. “Chinese ambassador has complained to me that you have destroyed CPEC and no work was done in the past three years,” Saleem Mandviwalla, Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan, said earlier.[2]
Although the CPEC projects looked ambitious, there were problems with implementation due to misgovernance and improper policies, said Pakistan’s former foreign secretary, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. “Signing MoUs does not automatically translate into projects. For that, we need to create a congenial business environment with minimal red tape and fast-track facilitation. Security of foreign investors and investments has emerged as a serious issue,” he said.[3]
It is not just delays but the CPEC is going to be detrimental for Pakistan as the megaproject can witness delays for another ten years, said Osama Ahmad, a researcher at the Islamabad-based Pak Institute of Peace Studies. “Now, a decade after CPEC was first launched, the initiative has landed in uncharted territory, delivering very little and attracting myriad controversies. Not only have Pakistan’s development projects stalled over the past decade, but CPEC has also exacerbated longstanding tensions in Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” he said.
Some areas regarding the CPEC implementation have become concerning. Tardy decision-making, Pakistani leaders’ propensity to speak more and perform less, political instability, dynastic politics, domination of the military, and rising debts are among them. Imtiaz Gul, author and head of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies, said “Ten years on, many Chinese expectations associated with CPEC have gone sour — a journey of lofty rhetoric and shallow promises by Pakistani leaders and less inclination to implementation and reform required for desired economic progress.”
China and Pakistan have held regular meetings to keep the CPEC on track. However, it failed to produce the intended benefits. Social scientist Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh highlighted how lack of transparency, unsustainable imports and Chinese dumping, and political indecision obstructed the implementation of the CPEC projects. “These developments considerably slowed down the implementation and expansion of the programme. One decade on since it was announced, the weaknesses in its implementation should also be addressed,” said Shaikh, who is a former vice-chancellor of Karachi-based Sindh Madressatul Islam University.[4]
Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan was said to have put the CPEC on the backburner owing to political differences and allegations of the megaproject being too favourable to China and disadvantageous to Pakistan.[5] Now the poor pace of the CPEC has created problems for Pakistan amid high inflation rates, trade deficits and massive debt, which are exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and unprecedented floods. The CPEC-driven prosperity, employment opportunities, and poverty reduction remain a distant dream for Pakistanis.[6]
Despite the first phase of the CPEC failing to achieve its objective, the Pakistan government is talking about the launch of another new phase of the programme. However, there seems no possibility of it since for China, CPEC is solely establishing connectivity between Xinjiang and Gwadar, which serves its geopolitical interests in the Middle East, said economy journalist Khurram Husain. “No such thing is about to happen, and all the noise around a revival of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is either wishful thinking (at best) or a way to camouflage what really is going on,” he wrote.[7]
Sources:
[1] https://www.pc.gov.pk/web/press/get_press/1169
[2] https://www.dawn.com/news/1646793
[3] https://www.dawn.com/news/1840189/upgrading-cpec
[4] https://www.dawn.com/news/1815062
[5] https://www.dw.com/en/belt-and-road-forum-is-the-china-pakistan-economic-corridor-failing/a-48473486
[6] https://www.dawn.com/news/1837540/pakistan-china-set-to-reinvigorate-economic-corridor-project-connecting-xinjiang-to-gwadar
[7] https://www.dawn.com/news/1836587/the-great-cpec-mirage
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