ISLAMABAD: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) offered great opportunities for Pakistan to enforce its geo-economic policy, an expert told WealthPK.
Saqib Shirani, a prominent economist, told WealthPK that CPEC held great potential to help Pakistan to attain one of its six national security policy agendas. “China is a strategic ally of Pakistan since the very beginning. It has provided steadfast and unflinching diplomatic, financial, military and people-to-people support to Pakistan,” he added.
He said that through the $62 billion CPEC, China is playing a transformational role in Pakistan’s economy. “CPEC is Pakistan’s biggest geo-economics opportunity and should be grasped with both hands. In short, CPEC should be the anchor of Pakistan’s geo-economics vision,” he added.
In 2012, Pakistan termed geo-economics the basis of its foreign policy. As a vision and aspiration, it represents the right approach and thinking. With the dramatic events in Afghanistan, it also appears that for the first time a historic window of opportunity has opened for Pakistan to put this vision to work.
As the external environment appears to have become conducive, especially to the country’s west and north-west, the policymakers will have to work to transform the vision into reality. Strategic clarity is a must for moving forward in the right direction.
China, a strategic partner and all-weather friend of Pakistan, has invested heavily in CPEC. The gamechanger mega project has the potential to transform Pakistan’s economy.
-INP
