Address in Beijing

Addressing the opening session of China's second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum, Prime Minister Imran Khan stated that "Pakistan is proud to have partnered with China in this transformative endeavour. We have been among BRI's earliest and most enthusiastic proponents." China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an integral component of BRI, envisages modernization of Pakistan's obsolete and inadequate physical infrastructure by focusing on road and energy projects as well as setting up special economic zones; originally valued at 46 billion dollars by 2017 the two countries agreed to an additional 16 billion dollar projects. Khan called for greater attention to deal with climate change and poverty, adding that Pakistan and China will enter the next phase of CPEC defined as cooperation in agriculture, health and education sectors.
At a time when foreign direct investment (FDI) was appallingly low, CPEC was seen, and continues to be seen by the PML-N government, as its major achievement. However, there has been a slowdown in project implementation, reflected in the 3.5 billion dollar decline in imports in the current year. Government sources acknowledge that the decline in imports is attributable to a slowing down in CPEC project implementation due to Pakistan government's lowered capacity to provide counterpart funds as well as a decline in services imports attributed to the end of phase one of CPEC projects and prior to commencing phase 2.
Be that as it may, the PML-N government shared few details of the financing of CPEC projects or so it was alleged by the then opposition leaders, including Imran Khan, though the then planning minister Ahsan Iqbal repeatedly claimed that all details had been shared. The previous administration further maintained that inflows were largely in the form of FDI under public-private partnership which the government was not bound to repay. The Opposition at the time argued that sovereign guarantees must have been provided given that PPRA rules were not applied by the then government claiming that projects were government-to-government where public procurement rules do not apply. The Opposition in the interest of transparency and accountability time and again requested that all CPEC project agreements be uploaded on the website. That was not done and has still not been done eight months after the Khan administration assumed power.
An additional external impediment to CPEC projects surfaced after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Pakistan that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would not extend a bailout package to Pakistan to repay loans to China under CPEC. The Managing Director of IMF confirmed this during the autumn (October 2018) annual meeting of the World Bank/IMF though she couched it in more diplomatic parlance: "in whatever work we do, we need to have a complete understanding and absolute transparency about the nature, size, terms of the debt that is bearing on a particular country."
US Undersecretary of Treasury Malpass stated during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in December last year that "China is lending in many countries where the terms of the loans are simply not given and that gives China a lot of leverage within its programmes...they (Pakistan) haven't disclosed the terms of that debt...in general terms we think the maturity of the Chinese debt comes after the IMF would have been repaid." He was no doubt referring to repayment of the Extended Fund Facility; however a new bailout package, currently under negotiations, would imply a request for details of all loans acquired for CPEC projects from Chinese government institutions (including banks) as well as the repayment schedule.
Prime Minister Khan further stated that BRI marks a new and distinct phase in the onward march of nations in the world along the path of globalization - a march that one hopes he is aware was summarily halted by US President Trump seeking 'fair' or balanced trade with the US major trading partners. The US vice president during the APEC summit last year stated: "we're making infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific a top priority. From roads to railways, ports to pipelines, airports to data lines, the US has a principled approach that stands in stark contrast to some other nations. As we are all aware, some are offering infrastructure loans to governments across the Indo-Pacific and the world. Yet the terms of those loans are often opaque at best, projects they support are often unsustainable and poor quality. Too often they come with strings attached and lead to staggering debt." Pence added that the US offers a better option as "we don't drown our partners in a sea of debt, we don't coerce, or compromise your independence - the United States deals fairly, openly".
The European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen during the first BRI Forum held in Beijing in 2017, acknowledged the opportunities presented by greater interconnectivity envisaged in BRI but stressed that the EU would only endorse BRI if China adhered to principles of openness, interoperability, transparency, and sustainability. However, Italy clearly broke ranks recently and fully endorsed BRI during President Xi's visit to that country.
Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia cancelled a Chinese-funded 20 billion dollar East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project as well as a natural gas pipeline project in Sabah and while in China boldly stated: "I believe China itself does not want to see Malaysia become a bankrupt country."
To conclude, one would hope that Imran Khan revisits CPEC projects and makes the required adjustments/amendments in the national interest.