Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Ishrat Hussain on Tuesday said that red-tapism was a primary obstacle in progress on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC).
Addressing a seminar titled "One Belt One Road' which was organised by Pathfinder Group & Nutshell Forum at a local hotel, he said that CPEC can be a game changer as far regional economic disparities, reduction of income and foreign remittance and reduction of poverty was concerned, however undue interference of bureaucracy was creating hurdles in its way.
The entrepreneurial activity gets stiffened when too many agencies of the government coming and creating hurdles in its way. "If the government agencies are kept out of the picture, I can assure you that Pakistani businessman will do a very good job in turning around the country's economy," he added.
"My major concern is about implementation capacity of our own civil service. We seem to be in an endless fighting with each other all the time, which is not a conducive environment of implementation. Unless we have all the stakeholders on the same wavelength, all the implementing agencies working together in liaison, our dreams of benefiting from the CPEC would not realise," he added.
"Completion of one of the three corridors, which goes from Gwadar through Kallat, Kharan, Quetta, Qilla Saifullah, Zhob, Dera Ismail Khan and then connects the most backward districts of Balochistan and KPK would have positive impact on the lives of the people. For that reason I am much excited about the positive gains of CPEC," he added.
Ishrat added that out of the total 80 backward districts of the county, some 24 were in Balochistan, therefore this particular route would bring about a complete change in the living standards of the people of the said region.
"I am looking at China from three prospective, the first is the enormous growth and poverty reduction China made during the last 30 to 35 years, which is unprecedented in the history.
The second is growing image and importance of China in the global economic prospective, and the third is what would CPEC do for Pakistani economy," he added.
"In the history of humankind there is no success story as of China. Pakistan India and China had $100 per capita income some years back, however today China's per capita income is more than $ 5000 whereas Pakistan and India stand anywhere between $1300 to $1500. There is no country in the world which has doubled its per capita income in just seven years but China did so with 10 percent growth rate. United States (US) took some 100 years, Japan took 50 years, and Korea took 25 years to double their per capita income," he pointed out.
The world is much better off today, and millennium development goals of poverty reduction have been achieved primarily because of one country. China was able to bring 500 million people out of the poverty. That is the kind of contribution China has made to the millennium development.
Zhang Chongqing, executive vice president of China Group Companies Association (CGCA) on this occasion said that the CPEC project would help further strengthen the bilateral trade relations between the two countries. "Chinese investors are now taking interest in Pakistan as the security situation is improving. Pakistani government is doing better job in this regard, making ways to future investment," he added.
He further said that Chinese companies were already working in Pakistan on different projects including roads and other infrastructure development projects, telecommunications, energy, construction of special economic zones and airport in Gwadar "I am happy to see here CPEC is under discussion, the project will be beneficial to the people of this country," he said.
Ikram Sehgal, Chairman Pathfinder Group, urged the people of the country to support the project. "CPEC is the only way of the economic and industrial revival and uplift of social life of the people of Pakistan particularly of those belonging to the most backward areas of the country," he concluded.
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