Mark my words, you haven't seen the last of the CPEC investments yet, China will add yet more billions into this in the coming decade. The Chinese, thanks to their export driven economy are sitting on a massive pile of capital, just looking for places to invest it, with a FTA with Pakistan, the promise of better trade through CPEC, and already a massive investment portfolio to instil confidence and lesser risk... investments from China will continue in the coming years.
The game plan is simple, we give China the chance to invest their overflowing capital, and establish trade routes for them to make their existing trade more efficient and to create more trade possibilities, in turn their trade is strengthened, they accumulate even more capital, and that in turn they'll invest again.
Pakistan must use this time, here and now to develop industry and a skilled workforce, don't let this time go to waste, it's no good having a country solely reliant on consumption, and net inflows of investment and running current account deficits.
Both China and Pakistan need to be careful too, this sort of patten of free trade between lower income and higher income economies has been seen before, specifically in the Eurozone, with Germany and Greece as an example. We have to be careful about how we make use of these investments and loans. With these brilliant projects, I also foresee Pakistani people accumulating a lot of private debt in rapid succession in the near future. We have to be careful with how these things work.
And as for Chabahar, and Iran-India deals, they're of no concern to us, nor are they in competition with our portfolio of projects with China. Our goal is to bolster China's trade with the rest of the world, the Middle East, via us. And even if it was competitive (which it isn't..), neither the Iranians or the Indians have the capital or the power to compete with the level of investment the Chinese have, it's just a fact, not even a fraction of Chinese investments can they match should China wish to put their all in to CPEC. Again, India and Iran are not relevant here, Pakistan and China are only.
