Pakistan excited to be economically transformed by China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-05-15

The Gwadar Port in Pakistan. (File photo/Xinhua)

Beijing's investments in the China-Pakistan economic corridor will be like a river, originating in China and running through Pakistan, gradually transforming the economic landscape of the South Asian nation, a former Pakistani foreign secretary said.

During a visit to Pakistan in late April, Chinese president Xi Jinping signed a US$46 billion investment agreement to build the China-Pakistan economic corridor, which will include a series of infrastructure projects in the South Asian nation.

Former Pakistani foreign secretary Riaz Hussain Khokhar described the Chinese investments as a river that will run through all provinces and territories of his country, impacting areas such as energy, infrastructure and finance.

This will help Pakistan improve its government finance and tax revenue, overcome its power shortage challenges, improve the quality of its infrastructure, and create more jobs, thus changing the country's economic landscape, he said.

During Xi's visit, China and Pakistan signed agreements to cooperate on several power plant projects.

Pakistani federal minister for water and power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the energy projects in the economic corridor program will help his country deal with its power shortage problem.

In the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, power cuts are common every other hour, and the government estimates that the power shortage problem wipes out 2 percentage points of the country's economic growth every year.

China Mobile, the only company in Pakistan that has a license to offer 4G mobile phone services, is also expected to generate opportunities for other Chinese businesses, the newspaper said.

China Mobile, which acquired Paktel in 2007 and re-launched the unit under the name "Zong," gained licenses in April 2014 for both 3G and 4G operations, with a bid of US$516 million.

Transportation is another area that Chinese companies are eyeing for business opportunities in Pakistan, the newspaper said.

Pakistan's transportation infrastructure has been slow to develop because of serious damage caused by severe flooding in recent years and also due to the country's reduced economic growth since 2008, according to the newspaper.

Ma Wenjun, an executive at a unit of Chinese locomotive maker CSR, said the development of public transportation, including light rail, subways, railways and high speed rail, is necessary for Pakistan, which has a population of 200 million.