ISLAMABAD: Out of the total $45 billion investment in Pakistan, China will invest up to $37 billion in various energy projects while give $8 billion concessional loan for infrastructure development projects of Pak-China Economic Corridor project.
This was stated by Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms while speaking at a press conference along with Information Minister Pervez Rashid and Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, here on Friday.
Briefing journalists about the two-day state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will arrive here on Monday, Ahsan Iqbal said that the investment in energy and infrastructure projects would be done by the Chinese companies and the Chinese banks will provide loans.
To a question about the exact mark-up rate of the loan, Ahsan Iqbal did not divulge the exact rate but added that the markup of the concessional loan being acquired for the infrastructure projects will be much lesser than the market rate and it will be for a period of 15 to 20 years.
He said that the government was trying to give maximum share to the private sector to invest in these projects. About completion of the energy projects, he said most of the coal projects would be completed in three years while the projects related to wind and solar will take up to one year to be completed.
He said that the energy projects with Chinese support would generate a total of 16,500MW electricity, adding the work on 10,400 MW projects would be completed by 2018 in the first phase. While projects of 60,00MW will be completed in the second phase, he added.
In Thar, Ahsan said that 10 coal-based power plants will be installed on commercial basis which will generate up to 6,600MW electricity from coal.
To a question, he rejected the controversy around various projects, saying that all the concerned provinces have been consulted on the energy projects.
According to him, projects of 8,500 MW will be undertaken in Azad Jammu and Kashmir while there are various hydel projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, coal in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.
When asked why the chief ministers of other provinces other than Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif were not being involved in the ongoing dialogue with Chinese government, he advised media to avoid making things controversial through such questions.
"Shahbaz Sharif is indeed brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but he [Shahbaz Sharif] has a good political repute and Pak-China relations are not confined to the government of any particular party in the country," he remarked.
He maintained that the reservations of the political parties on the route of Pak-China Corridor have mostly been addressed in a meeting with representatives of the political parties on Wednesday.
He said that three basic routes of the project, the Western route which will link D.I. Khan with Gwadar via Qila Saifullah, Zhob and Quetta, adding there was a missing link of 400 KM between Sorab and Gwadar and work on it has already been started by FWO last year and would be completed by 2016.
He said that the 124 KM road from Quetta and D.I. KHAN is being upgraded with the help of Asian Development Bank while the road between Multan and Quttta is being upgraded with the help of Japan.
The second route, according to him, will be from Gwadar to Rato Dero and Sukkur via Indus Highway and the third route, which can be called as Eastern route, will be from Gwadar to Sukkur via Motorway from Peshawar and Lahore to Karachi, adding the work on all the routes has been started.
"Gwadar...Pak-China Corridor is not just a route but it is a framework and an umbrella, which will enable access to various markets," he said, adding that China is linking its Eastern corridor with its Western where Pakistan is not the only route for the Chinese. "There are other routers as well for the Chinese government but we've to undertake this project for our own interest to link our economic development with China without going into any controversy," he added.
The minister maintained in the next 10 years, Gwadar will be a leading "Port City" on the patron of Singapore and Dubai.
About the security to the Chinese, he said that the prime minister was going to constitute a special security force along with the army to provide security to the Chinese investors and the people associated with the projects. When asked whether the Chinese government has also shown interest in construction of the pipeline of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project on Pakistan's side, the Minister said that the Chinese government will only fund the power transmission line coming from Iran and not the pipeline of IP gas project.
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