ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Board of Investment (BOI) and Special Initiatives Chaudhry Salik Hussain on Thursday informed Senate that the government has revived work on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project with full speed.
Replying queries during Questions Hour session in the Senate, he said a long term plan is being considered into an implementation matrix on CPEC, adding that joint working groups are being convened to pave the way for 11th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting in this regard. He said that the Chinese investment has decreased by 10 percent in last two years (FY2020- FY2021). In written reply, the minister said that the decrease in Chinese investments was due to various reasons including COVID-19. He said that COVID-19 outbreak caused a sharp decline in global economic activity.
“As majority of Chinese investments fall under the CPEC ambit, the economic disruptions and social restrictions caused by COVID-19 also impacted the pace of CPEC, thus impacting the overall Net FDI” he added.
The minister said that the decrease in Chinese investment in the last two years is partly due to the conclusion of CPEC Phase-1 which has overall impacted the outlay of Chinese investments in Pakistan. The minister said that unfortunately during previous government’s tenure CPEC was not assigned priority in either allocation of resources or implementation. Chaudhry Salik said that creation of CPEC authority created confusion and duplication in functions of Ministries and Departments. He said that most of the early harvest projects under the first phase of CPEC relating to power and infrastructure have completed and CPEC has entered the second phase (2020-2025) which focuses on industrial cooperation which is a long-term endeavor and dependent on industrialization through industrial relocation from China, particularly in the Special Economic Zone (SEZs). Sites for Nine SEZs were identified but not a single SEZ was readied, in fact work on five SEZs was never started. –Agencies
