China Pakistan Economic Corridor: about 8,000 Chinese presently working on 210 projects: PCJCCI

Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President Shah Faisal Afridi on Friday revealed that about 8,000 Chinese were presently working on 210 projects in Pakistan while 7,000 additional workers were expected to execute multi-billion projects along the proposed routes under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The PCJCCI President in a statement said CPEC could be a fate changer, but only if Pakistan succeeded in overcoming its security challenges. "Chinese would have invested 10 times more in Pakistan over the last few decades, if the security situation had been better." He said Pakistan needed to handle not only the security challenges at home, but it also needed to contribute towards promoting regional stability.
"It needs to be realised by every single person criticising CPEC that presently, industry in Pakistan is not producing enough goods for the consumption of country's own demand. Pakistan and China proposed 29 industrial parks and 21 mineral zones across the country which will enable Pakistan to produce the goods for its public demand," he added.
Through more foreign investment young and educated people would get more benefits by getting jobs in new industrial parks and mineral zones, he said, adding CPEC and industrial parks would bring up the people from the poverty line and would bring a new look to country's economic market.
"Pakistan will be able to export more public goods and related material in international markets. Through the CPEC bilateral trade between Pakistan and China will exceed and thus CPEC will be a fate changer for Pakistan," he maintained. Faisal Afridi was confident that personnel of the security division are vigilant enough to cope with the thwarting designs of the local and foreign conspirators. However, he said the issue of provision of security to CPEC should not only be confined to the security of field projects who live in rented houses in cities including Islamabad and foolproof arrangements should be made for their security as well.