CPEC offers opportunities for both China, Pakistan: Chinese Expert

BEIJING, Jun 10 (APP) :The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) offers investment opportunities for Chinese enterprises and infrastructure improvement for Pakistan, said Zhang Jiadong, director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Both China and Pakistan benefit from CPEC a lot. For the Chinese companies, it has been a very good overseas construction project, and for the Pakistani side, provides more sustainable power supply and transportation facilities, he told CGTN.
Zhang Jiadong highlighted that in the past, China and Pakistan have mainly relied on diplomatic relations and the economic cooperation between the two countries is relatively new.

The CPEC has led the economic cooperation to develop into a deep partnership as the two countries have joint investments and cooperation. So, it is very important for the long-term development of China-Pakistan relations, he added.
In response to a question about second phase of CPEC which includes sectors such as innovation, economic development, and regional connectivity, he pointed out that the first phase of the corridor is mainly infrastructure construction.

Under the first phase of CPEC, basic goals have been achieved wherein some projects have been completed ahead of schedule and beyond expectations. Pakistan’s electricity supplies are already sufficient, and in some areas have even surplus electricity.
However, the CPEC only provides a foundation and a basic framework for economic cooperation between China and Pakistan, he said and added, that both countries have identified five corridors for more specific cooperation in various sectors in the future.
For regional connectivity, he said that Pakistan could play a very important role as the country is a bridge between Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia and it is also a bridge between different civilizations.

Pakistan can play a very important role in this area but better regional connectivity needs a kind of opening up which is very important for any country’s development, he added.