China wants Pakistan to increase pace of work on CPEC projects

ISLAMABAD: The top government functionary has directed the concerned authorities to ensure fast-track work on ongoing projects related to multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to match the pace of work being done by the Chinese government on its portion of the project, the sources told The News here on Wednesday.
“At a time when various political groups have again started raising controversies about the CPEC project, the Chinese government wants Pakistan to increase the pace of work to achieve the targets well within the stipulated timeframe,” the sources said.
A senior official told this correspondent that a high level 12-member delegation comprising senior representatives of the Chinese government visited Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Gwadar in last week of October this year and presented a report to its government on the pace of the ongoing CPEC projects in Pakistan.
He said it was Pakistan’s responsibility to complete the Khunjerab-Gwadar route at a pace that can supplement China’s economic priorities attached to the CPEC because it was the shortest but not the only supply chain available to China.
It is pertinent to mention here that a major chunk of 35-37 billion dollar was purely Chinese investment in Independent Power Projects (IPPs) and Pakistan will purchase electricity from these projects while the remaining 8-9 billion dollar will be Chinese concessional loans for infrastructure development like roads, ports and railways.
Talking to The News, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said CPEC is not a name of any road rather it embeds development projects in different sectors including energy and infrastructure.
“Despite the fact that we are not receiving the required support from some local political groups the government will meet the targets set for completion of the projects related to CPEC. We have no other option except to achieve our targets and bring an economic boom in the country through the CPEC project,” he said.
To a question, he said representatives from both Pakistan and China share their views in the meetings of the working groups and “I can say that China is quite happy with the pace of work on ongoing projects in the Pakistan’s side of CPEC.”
He said: “The government hopes that the political parties and groups that are creating hurdles in the way of the CPEC project will leave aside their differences and think for better future of Pakistan.”