ghazi52
PDF THINK TANK: ANALYST
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CPEC and Pakistan
As tensions rise over the South China Sea disputes and India starting to militarize its Andaman and Nicobar archipelago near the Malacca strait, Chinese maritime shipping routes over which the country is highly dependent upon have become increasingly threatened. Realizing the need, many years ago China started its belt and road initiative where it would use geography to bypass the long sea route and recreate the silk road, at the very center of this down south is Pakistan.
Now due to above-mentioned problems becoming reality, China’s dependence upon the CPEC will only rise and this gives Pakistan some more leverage to work on. As the projects are under construction Pakistani policy makers must work now to secure favorable terms in future deals and start planning on setting up new industries which overlap CPEC and future trends. This is important especially as of right now as the whole world is under lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic giving Pakistan the time it needs to develop and enter new markets.
Already we are seeing positive effects as CPEC solved the energy crisis resulting in years old shutdown mills restarting and piled with orders beyond their manufacturing capacity. If more industries are set up to utilize the excess energy along with the older reopened ones, Pakistan will again reenter the world stage as a big exporter of goods. As a result, Pakistan’s financial problems will become much more relaxed as exports jump closer to imports and overall wealth and services will increase within the country.
However, this is no easy thing to achieve and comes with problems that need resolving. The largest among them are persuading local investors to set up said industries and dealing with the ongoing Indian-backed insurgency within Baluchistan (BLA). Terrorist operations create uncertainty & instability, something which disturbs the investors and will create difficulty for industrialization but also CPEC progress.
Security forces will have to speed up in containing the remnants of Indian-funded mercenaries (BLA) who are the root cause of little development in the region for many years. Only once the threat has been neutralized can large-scale commercial activity take place and this is something Pakistan will have to deal with quickly, it is now or never.
As tensions rise over the South China Sea disputes and India starting to militarize its Andaman and Nicobar archipelago near the Malacca strait, Chinese maritime shipping routes over which the country is highly dependent upon have become increasingly threatened. Realizing the need, many years ago China started its belt and road initiative where it would use geography to bypass the long sea route and recreate the silk road, at the very center of this down south is Pakistan.
Now due to above-mentioned problems becoming reality, China’s dependence upon the CPEC will only rise and this gives Pakistan some more leverage to work on. As the projects are under construction Pakistani policy makers must work now to secure favorable terms in future deals and start planning on setting up new industries which overlap CPEC and future trends. This is important especially as of right now as the whole world is under lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic giving Pakistan the time it needs to develop and enter new markets.
Already we are seeing positive effects as CPEC solved the energy crisis resulting in years old shutdown mills restarting and piled with orders beyond their manufacturing capacity. If more industries are set up to utilize the excess energy along with the older reopened ones, Pakistan will again reenter the world stage as a big exporter of goods. As a result, Pakistan’s financial problems will become much more relaxed as exports jump closer to imports and overall wealth and services will increase within the country.
However, this is no easy thing to achieve and comes with problems that need resolving. The largest among them are persuading local investors to set up said industries and dealing with the ongoing Indian-backed insurgency within Baluchistan (BLA). Terrorist operations create uncertainty & instability, something which disturbs the investors and will create difficulty for industrialization but also CPEC progress.
Security forces will have to speed up in containing the remnants of Indian-funded mercenaries (BLA) who are the root cause of little development in the region for many years. Only once the threat has been neutralized can large-scale commercial activity take place and this is something Pakistan will have to deal with quickly, it is now or never.
