ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chief of Mission, Chinese Embassy Zhao Lijian has said that China would set up a large steel factory at Gwadar to further expedite economic developments being carried out under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework. Both China and Pakistan will very soon sign an agreement to establish the steel factory, three times bigger than the free economic zone being set up in Gwadar city.
In an exclusive interview with Customs Today, Zhao Lijian said that under CPEC there were 39 projects in total and 18 projects are under construction. For Pakistan CPEC is the largest project under Belt and Road initiative. Moreover, no other country has implemented OBOR like Pakistan.
He added that he had arranged interviews of scholars to the Chinese journalists on OBOR concept as it was bringing a lot of investment. Pakistan will benefit the most out of OBOR than other countries.
Moreover he added that East-Bay Expressway, International Airport in Gwadar and also Gwadar Master Plan would be inaugurated; these projects are almost ready and we are doing final steps and groundbreaking ceremony to be held in later half of the year. We have 18 projects in progress and will publish progress report of each project separately. We are going to launch progress reports of all these projects soon in mainstream newspapers.
A few days back, he said that two important projects CPEC Medical Center and Fisheries Processing Plant were inaugurated in the presence of Chinese Ambassador, Pakistani Minister of Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Khan Bazinjo and others in Gwadar. Fisheries processing plant is meant for local fishermen as Gwadar is a fishing village and fish and crabs are very cheap there. Thus, the processing plant can add value to their products and people can export their products. It will increase income of local people and benefits of CPEC will trickle down not only through industry but from other sectors too.
He observed that Chief Minister Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Pervaiz Khattak led a 170 member delegation to Beijing for a road show and during his stay I helped him in holding opening ceremony and organized his bilateral meetings with Vice Minister NDRC who is equal to counterpart of Prof Ahsan Iqbal. He is leading GCC from Chinese side and he was very happy with his visit and after the visit he showed me a list 82 MoUs worth $ 24 billion and it is half of the CPEC amount.
He maintained that Most of the projects under CPEC for Balochistan under construction were moving a little bit slowly because of the fact that most of the projects were being implemented either by grant or by soft loans. Commercial projects like energy plants can be completed quickly because the private sector always works at better pace than the public sector which confronts hurdles like official red-tape. However, we are doing a lot for Balochistan and we supported Governor Balochistan to a ten day visit to China last November.
To question about role of Pakistani media in highlighting Chinese narrative, Zhao Lijian said that majority of Pakistani media outlets used to follow the reports from western media especially AFP, AP and other instead of Xinhua. Therefore, reports carried forward by western media outlets are often angled and carry colour of their respective government policies. So it is need of the hour that Chinese perspective also be highlighted.
In a little frank mood, Zhao Lijian also gave an interesting insight into the concept of One Belt One Road saying that OBOR Initiative would usher in incomparable benefits to economy, trade and infrastructure along with energy development for the countries and regions involved. OBOR the initiative will create six transnational China-centric economic corridors: a new Eurasian land bridge of freight trains connecting the port of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province to Rotterdam; a Mongolia-Russia corridor; a Central Asia-West Asia corridor; an Indochina peninsula corridor; a Pakistan corridor; and a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar corridor.
“Projected investments are estimated to benefit 4.4 billion people in 65 countries. The total size, according to some estimates, could be more than 12 times America’s Marshall Plan to aid post-second-world-war Western Europe, in comparable money-of-the-day terms. OBOR will set a new world economic order with shared prosperous future destinations” he added.
