That China has fully appreciated the enormity of challenges to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a fact that is fully manifested in the remarks of China's envoy to Pakistan Sun Weidong that he made at the inauguration of a website of CPEC and its projects a day ago. According to him, as many as 10,000 local people have been given jobs in 17 CPEC-related projects so far. Although he did not identify the ethnic groups or areas from where people have been afforded new job opportunities, it is quite clear that people from Balochistan, particularly those hailing from the Makran Division that hosts Gwadar seaport, are among them. This is undoubtedly a salutary beginning; and the credit for this achievement, however modest given the presence of unemployed teeming millions across the country, goes to China, the PML-N government and of course Pakistan Army. In the case of Balochistan in particular, the creation of more and more job opportunities through Gwadar port and other CPEC projects will help, among other things, deal with the ominous challenge of low-level Baloch insurgency that has been intermittently challenging the writ of state in various parts of the mineral-rich province in an effective and meaningful manner.
Not only did Sun, in the presence of Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Mir Hasil Bizenjo, highlight the unwavering commitment of his country to the historic infrastructure development of its neighbour and time-tested ally Pakistan, he also threw up quite a few lessons for our policymakers to examine the successes of CPEC. Here one must not lose sight of the fact that China has steadily transformed western attitudes towards it mainly due to its unprecedented economic successes that it has been achieving since the end of the 1970s: now it is poised to surpass even America's economy by the end of first half of this century; it already has the highest foreign reserves and is the leading exporter which posts a trade surplus of $200 billion every year.
China owes its success to a variety of factors but the principal reason is its human resource which turned into a skilled and highly skilled workforce in little or no time mainly because of universal health and education and one-party rule that Chairman Mao's China, despite a profound social and economic turmoil, had bequeathed to Deng Xiaoping. In this regard, our policymakers can go back to the work of the late Ishrat Husain Usmani, the atomic physicist of global repute, who during the rule of Ayub Khan created a pool of educated people and sent them abroad to get education in nuclear physics with a view to exploiting the country's potential of nuclear energy. Hence, the need for training as many people as possible to prepare them for a variety of jobs that all the CPEC projects are poised to offer in due course. The situation also underscores the need for creating a big pool of qualified engineers, technicians, artisans and others for their training in China and some other countries.
How security is critical to the successful completion of CPEC projects is a question that is evident in Pakistan Army's proactive approach to the entire spectrum of economic development plans that characterise the CPEC canvas. That Pakistan Army is a key stakeholder in CPEC is a stark reality and it has repeatedly reassured China of CPEC security. Only a couple of days ago, China's top military officials, that included General Zhao Zongqi, Commander of People's Liberation Army (PLA), Western Theatre, were categorically told by the new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at GHQ, that Pakistan Army shall remain strongly committed to CPEC security. After some minor disturbances in China following the outbreak of the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East five years ago, Lee Kwan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, offered a very informed perspective on how China appreciates the criticality of law and order for its economic growth. According to the late Lee, not only does China need law and order, it also needs 'very good law and order'. The successful completion of CEPC and ushering in an era of lasting progress and prosperity in Pakistan can therefore be linked to, among other things, greater peace and inter-provincial harmony.
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