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China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) | Updates & Discussions

Hi, has anyone made a bar chart or similar showing the proposed investment flow from say 2015 to 2018 (or beyond if you have it). Is all the 46 billion dollars coming within this time frame....and how much % wise has been completely signed off and how much still remains at MOU stage. Any help/knowledge with this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

The pictures are looking good:tup:
 
CPEC attracts Austrian investment in Pakistan

* Austrian mission actively engaged with business community besides govt for promoting bilateral trade, says Austrian Ambassador Dr Brigitta Blaha

KARACHI: The embassy of Austria and its consulates in Pakistan explored investment opportunities for Austrian companies linked to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).


“We are exploring investment opportunities in Pakistan for our companies,” said Ambassador of Austria to Pakistan Dr Brigitta Blaha on Monday during an interactive session at Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA).


PIIA Chairperson and former ambassador of Pakistan Dr Masooma welcomed the diplomat amid good number of participants representing different professions.


The Austrian ambassador spoke about her country’s foreign policy. She said that Austria saw CPEC very positively and her country had a very particular role in it, adding that the Austrian missions were searching the avenues of investment to bring more Austrian companies in Pakistan.


The missions were actively engaged with the business community of Pakistan besides the governments also for promoting bilateral trade she said, adding that there should be more exchange of trade and cultural delegations between the two countries.


Austria had 100 offices spread across the world for surfing business partnership and access to new markets for promoting foreign trade. It was also extending maximum cooperation in reducing poverty in partnering countries, she said.


She informed the participants that a group of Pakistani musicians and artistes were due in Austria for performance and in reciprocation Austrian artistes would soon visit Pakistan for the same.


To a question, she replied that the people of Austria were very happy to be a part of the European Union (EU). Austria has been its member for the last twenty years.” Our people are convinced that EU is a good thing and should continue,” she remarked.



‘CPEC TO MAKE PAKISTAN ATTRACTIVE BUSINESS DESTINATION’

Salim Ahmed
Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - Lahore—German Ambassador to Pakistan Ina Lepel said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would make Pakistan an attractive business destination for the whole world. She expressed these views while talking to the Senior Vice President, Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Tuesday. The Ambassador said that visit of a number of German delegations to Pakistan is an ample proof that Germany gives importance to trade and economic ties with Pakistan. She said that a high-powered German business delegation, led by Deputy Minister, will visit Pakistan in the 2nd half of the year. She said that Germany is also planning to hold a spring festival in Lahore in the month April.

Ina Lepel said strong liaison between Chambers of Commerce & Industry and business institutions of the two countries would definitely enhance the mutual trade volume therefore the LCCI should take a stride in this regard. German Ambassador said that Pakistan’s exports are enhancing after GSP Plus status. Pakistani business community would have to adopt an aggressive strategy as customers in European Union are not only quality conscious but also very selective in making deals with other countries, she added.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Hyder said that Pakistan and Germany have very cordial diplomatic relations and are steady trading partners heading towards finding new avenues of trade and investment. Germany is one of the few trillion economies in the world and we are glad to have trade and investment relations with Germany. Almas Hyder said that Germany happens to be one of the major trading partners of Pakistan in European Union. We are grateful to Germany for supporting Pakistan with regard to GSP plus status. The consistent rise in two way trade between two countries is evident of the fact that the joint efforts made at public and private sector levels are paying off.

The Pakistani exports to Germany registered upward trend from 2012 on with dollar 989 million to dollar 1.08 billion and dollar 1.22 billion in next two years. The imports from Germany to Pakistan were over one billion dollar in 2014 that resulted in taking the overall trade level to dollar 2.29 billion. With such a trend that has now put Pakistan in a favourable balance of trade with Germany, we can benefit a lot in near future. “We look up towards Germany to further help us in addressing theenergy crisis in Pakistan. Germany has earned respectable name in the field of alternative energy solutions in the world”, he said.

He invited the German investors to avail the trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan through joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts. Pakistan offers a great potential for foreign investment by way of having a strategic location with abundant raw materials and cheapest labour force. The LCCI Vice President Nasir Saeed said that ongoing CPEC project offers a lot to international investors as well. It goes without saying that any project initiated in Pakistan will automatically result in creating business opportunities that can be extended to the regional countries including Central Asian States.

Other important sectors where German investors can benefit a lot are oil & gas, food & food processing, cold chain system, dairy processing and engineering etc. He also praised the efforts made by certain German organizations especially in the field of technical and vocational training in Pakistan. Former LCCI Presidents Ijaz Butt, Ijaz A. Mumtaz, Mian Muzaffar Ali, former Senior Vice President Tahir Javed Malik, former Vice President Aftab Ahmed Vohra, Executive Committee Members Mian Zahid Javed, Abdul Razzaq and Amjad Ali Jawa were also present on the occasion.

Bosch opens its doors in Pakistan

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German envoy speaks of country’s potential as company inaugurates office in Lahore. PHOTO: AFP

LAHORE: Bosch, a global supplier of technology and services, inaugurated its first office in Pakistan. Expanding the Bosch Group’s operations in the region, the office based in Lahore will serve as the liaison office for the company’s automotive aftermarket, power tools and security systems business divisions.

German Ambassador to Pakistan Ina Lepel, along with Steven Young, president, Bosch Turkey and Middle East, and Volker Bischoff, general manager of Bosch Middle East, attended the event.

Pakistan will prove to be a big market for global manufacturers: BoI

Lepel said with a young and growing population of nearly 200 million people, Pakistan is an interesting market, which cannot be ignored in the long-run by multinational companies. “Bosch’s latest venture is an important milestone in our bilateral economic relations with Pakistan.”

She added that Pakistan is expected to register a steady GDP growth rate of 4.5% over the next two years according to the International Monetary Fund and lower inflation rate positively affects domestic purchasing power.

Reflecting on Pakistan’s economic growth, Young said, “We are keen to be part of Pakistan’s rising growth story. The strongly developing middle class rising consumer demand and the growth of manufacturing and automotive sectors are very positive indicators.”

Bischoff said the country is a crucial market for the sustained growth of Robert Bosch Middle East. “We are keen to develop direct relationships with our local customer’s and support the industry with our expertise.”

Standard Chartered: Bank to double business in Pakistan

LCCI visit

The German Ambassador also met Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice President Almas Hyder and said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would make Pakistan an attractive business destination.

She said that strong liaison between Chambers of Commerce and Industry and business institutions of the two countries would definitely enhance the mutual trade.

The German ambassador said that Pakistan’s exports were enhancing after the GSP plus status but Pakistani businessmen would have to adopt an aggressive strategy as customers in the EU were not only quality conscious but also very selective.

CPEC to be beneficial for all Central Asian States: PM Nawaz



ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), developed with the help of China, would be beneficial for all the Central Asian States, including Kazakhastan.

According to media reports, he was talking to First Deputy Defence Minister / Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Republic of Khazakhstan, Colonel General Zhasuzakov Saken Adikhanovich, who called on him here at the Prime Minister House.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan valued close and cordial relations with Kazakhstan. Both the countries had immense mutual goodwill and understanding to bring them closer, he added.

He stressed that countries of the region needed to work for promoting regional trade and investment, which had the potential to change the destiny of the entire region.

Colonel General Zhasuzakov Saken Adikhanovich thanked the Prime Minister and expressed the confidence that mutual relations between the two countries would be further strengthened with the continued efforts from both sides.

The delegation included Rear Admiral Zhandarbek Zhanzakov, Commander-in-Chief of Naval Forces, Lieutenant General Oleg Bizhanov, Head of Military Intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Olzhas Khussainov, Deputy Head of International Cooperation Department and Ambassador of Kazakhstan.

Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Secretary Defence Lt. Gen. (R) Alam Khattak and other senior government officials were also present during the meeting



To protect Chinese investment, Pakistan Army leaves little to chance

GWADAR: A heavy police presence, guarded convoys, new checkpoints and troop reinforcements have turned parts of the southern port city of Gwadar into a fortress, as Pakistan's military seeks to protect billions of dollars of Chinese investment.

Securing the planned $46 billion economic corridor of roads, railways and pipelines from northwest China to the country's Arabian Sea coast is a huge challenge in a country where militants and separatist gunmen are a constant menace.

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Soldiers scan the contents of a truck at a checkpoint on the main highway outside Quetta. -Reuters

The army and interior ministry have sent hundreds of extra soldiers and police to Gwadar, the southern hub of the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and more are on their way.

“Soon we'll start hiring 700-800 police to be part of a separate security unit dedicated to Chinese security, and at a later stage a new security division would be formed,” Jafer Khan, regional police officer in Gwadar told Reuters.

A senior security official in the town of around 100,000 people said a further 400-500 soldiers had been recruited as a temporary measure to protect Chinese nationals.

On a recent visit, an SUV carrying Chinese visitors was escorted by two police vehicles and an army vehicle, while police blocked traffic at every crossroad along the route. It was not clear who the passengers were.

Keeping foreign workers and executives safe in Gwadar, which has expanded significantly over the last 15 years largely thanks to Chinese investment, is relatively straightforward.

The same cannot be said of the corridor as a whole.

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-Photo courtesy Radio Pakistan

Its western branch passes north through Balochistan province, where ethnic Baloch separatist rebels are opposed to the CPEC project and chafing under a military crackdown.

It skirts the tribal belt along the Afghan-Pakistan border where militant groups including the Pakistan Taliban and Al Qaeda have long been based, and takes in Peshawar, scene of some of the worst insurgent atrocities of recent years.

Crackdown and anger
The main responsibility for securing the corridor, vital to Pakistan's long-term prosperity, lies with a new army division established in the last few months and numbering an estimated 13,000 troops.

The Planning Ministry does not yet have specific estimates on how many jobs the CPEC will create in the country, although officials believe the project could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for the economy over the long term.

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A soldier mans a gun at a check post of a construction site on the outskirts of Gwadar. -Reuters

Some of the police, army and paramilitary reinforcements deployed in the last year have been stop-gap measures while the new Special Security Division (SSD) builds to full strength.

Enhanced security goes beyond Gwadar and across Balochistan, an arid, sparsely populated province bordering Iran and Afghanistan which sits on substantial deposits of untapped natural gas.

“We have tightened our security in those areas where the corridor is supposed to pass. We cannot allow Pakistan's economic backbone to be held hostage,” Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti, the provincial home minister, told Reuters.

The tough approach means anger is growing among separatist rebels and the broader Balach community, a potential problem for the military as it pursues a two-pronged approach: amnesty for rebels willing to disarm and hunting down those who are not.

The low-level insurgency has hit development in the province for decades. In recent violence, five soldiers were killed by a remote-controlled bomb some 50km east of Quetta last month.

Also in January, two coastguards died in a bomb blast in Gwadar district, although in both cases it was not possible to determine who was behind the attacks.

Progress so far "quite smooth"
Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, who launched a prolonged assault on militants after Taliban gunmen massacred 134 pupils at a school in Peshawar in late 2014, will hope a sharp fall in violence nationwide will also benefit the CPEC.

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A soldier and his dog search cars traveling at a checkpoint on the main highway outside Quetta. -Reuters

Militant, insurgent and sectarian groups carried out 625 attacks across Pakistan in 2015, down 48 per cent from 2014, said an independent think-tank, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies.

“Once people find they have a stake in this progress, the need for checkposts and barricades will disappear,” he said this month in Quetta, as he and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif officially launched a new highway linking the city with Gwadar.

The Pakistani Taliban recently threatened to target important government and military installations that could inflict economic loss on the country, although they did not talk specifically about the CPEC.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said progress so far on the corridor was “generally speaking, quite smooth”.

“The Pakistani government has done a great deal of work to protect the security of Chinese organisations and citizens. China is deeply thankful for this,” Lu added.



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A general view of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. -Reuters
 
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Proposal under study for civil-military consultative forum on China-Pakistan corridor

ISLAMABAD: A proposal for a consultative forum on the pattern of apex committees is currently under discussion between the civil and military leaderships for trouble-free implementation of the crucial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), sources privy to the development told Dawn.

With such a forum, they said, effective implementation of the corridor project, described as a game-changer for the country, would become the collective responsibility of both the civil and military leaderships.

Following the launch of the National Action Plan against terrorism in December 2014, the apex committees were formed for regular exchange of views on achievement of NAP’s goals.

The basic concept behind the proposal, they said, was to create a forum exclusively for the CPEC where the stakeholders – provincial governments and the security establishment – could present their opinion to the executing authority, the federal government.

“The discussion is in early stages,” said a government official.

According to a senior security official, everybody in the country wants smooth execution of the CPEC because it will strengthen the country’s national security and its economy. “The suggestion is just to take everybody on board so that the fruit of the corridor genuinely reaches have-nots at the grassroots level,” he added.

But for Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the CPEC is going ahead in a smooth manner and there is no need of taking such measures.

“Frankly speaking, I am unaware of any such development. Secondly, military is already involved in CPEC because it’s responsible for its (corridor) security,” Mr Iqbal said. “And at the Planning Commission, we are very much open to suggestions from the provincial governments for the corridor’s best materialisation on ground,” he added.

But the government official, who didn’t want to be named, said that although the military was already involved in the CPEC by taking care of its security through a full division of army created for the purpose, the security establishment’s continued engagement would ensure successful implementation of the corridor.

The Planning Commission is the focal ministry for the CPEC on Pakistan’s side.

The proposal, according to another government official involved in CPEC’s implementation, came up because of concerns repeatedly expressed by the Chinese government at the highest level over lack of political consensus and guaranteed returns to the Chinese investors who will be investing billions of dollars in various projects.

The government has already deployed a large number of personnel of law-enforcement agencies for security of the Chinese. On a recent visit, Reuters reported on Sunday, a vehicle carrying Chinese visitors was escorted by two police cars and an army vehicle, while police blocked traffic at every crossroad along the route.

The official said that senior Chinese officials had conveyed concerns to President Mamnoon Hussain during his visit to China in December. And in January, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, while noticing an increase in bickering among political parties, had to issue an unprecedented statement, saying, “China hopes that the relevant parties in Pakistan could strengthen communication and coordination on the CPEC to create favourable conditions for the project”.

The government official said: “By creating such a forum where all stakeholders can duly register their concerns for effective redressal will not only help the federal government for an evenly execution of the corridor, but also send a clear message to the Chinese investors about the safety of their investment.”

Further explaining the Chinese concern, a PML-N lawmaker who is also involved in the implementation of CPEC, said that most of the $46 billion investment promised for the corridor would be made in the energy sector for which investors needed all sorts of guarantees – of security and political stability.

“Yes, the ongoing political uncertainty with regard to the lack of consensus on the CPEC has caused serious doubts among the Chinese businessmen and, therefore, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if a certain forum is created where the parties concerned can give their input,” he said.

The lawmaker said that on several occasions in the past political parties had fallen in line on issues where the military was directly involved, and the army chief on many occasions had underlined the importance of the corridor for the country, “so why not have everybody on board for such a critical project”.

Launched after the Dec 2014 Army Public School carnage, the 20-point NAP was set in motion to combat terrorism in the country through collaborative efforts of the civil and military establishments at the federal and provincial levels.

A similar consultative forum is required for the CPEC, and “I think there is nothing wrong to have something on the same pattern”, the government official said.

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Hi, has anyone made a bar chart or similar showing the proposed investment flow from say 2015 to 2018 (or beyond if you have it). Is all the 46 billion dollars coming within this time frame....and how much % wise has been completely signed off and how much still remains at MOU stage. Any help/knowledge with this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

The pictures are looking good:tup:
The current PM is the mastermind behind Motorways. Everyone follows rules on motorways even those people who don't follow elsewhere. Motorway Police is free of corruption. InshaAllah by 2018, there will be huge network of motorways. Motorways of Pakistan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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DaewooM2.jpg


Can be used by Fighter jet also

Landing_Motorway.jpg
 
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I wonder if the CPEC project includes the development of gwadar city on the scale of something like dubai. A Freeport with foreign housing and industrial schemes...?
 
CPEC western route to be completed in time: Ahsan Iqbal
Monday, 15 February 2016 21:56

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SLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal Monday said work on western route was progressing in full swing and it would be completed soon.

"Gwadar-Surab section will be completed by December 2016, ground-breaking of D.I.Khan section will take place in month of March this year and will be completed by July 2018", he said in a meeting with Chief Minister Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Pervez Khattak here.

He said western route was very much part of China-Pakistan Economic framework and had also been clarified by Embassy of China in Pakistan.

He said the federal government was determined to complete it on priority basis by providing all the required funds for it.

The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, in which Ahsan Iqbal clarified misgivings about CPEC.

The minister said that KPK should ensure speedy land acquisition of parts of western route, which has to pass through some areas of KPK.

He assured the KPK CM that federal government would not discriminate with any province or region in CPEC, which is bound to benefit all parts of the country especially the less-developed provinces KPK and Balochistan.

Ahsan Iqbal said that Western route was very much part of monographic study of CPEC, which was the guiding document of its transport plan.

He clarified that CPEC document clearly states that no new CPEC road would be constructed under CPEC framework, but it envisages developing missing links on existing network including western route.

Ahsan assured provincial chief minister that federal government would incorporate the economic zones on the recommendations of provinces.

He asked KP government to come up with their specific proposals for economic zone. KPK should engage a well-reputed consultant to develop identify commercially viable sites in the province to make them attractive for the investors. The minister also assured that all provinces would be given the representation in working group.

Ahsan Iqbal said that federal government is ready to extend sovereign guarantee to KP on the lines given to other provinces. The minister said that CPEC framework focuses on Gwadar, infrastructure and energy in the first phase of CPEC.

He maintained that federal government believed in inclusive development in the country by not discriminating with any part of the country.

He listed mega projects that federal government has launched in KPK through PSDP including $11 billion Dassu Dam. In KPK, federal government approved highest number of projects related to higher education in the province as part of its commitment for empowering youth through higher education.

He assured KPK CM that federal government would take Chashma Right Bank Canal project on priority basis that would benefit irrigation system the project immensely.

The KPK CM expressed satisfaction on assurance of federal government to provide funds for western route and assured to officially confirm sites received by KP government for industrial zones within three days.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2016
 
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