Speakers at a seminar termed transparency as the biggest challenge for implementation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. They were speaking at the seminar on "CPEC-Gateway to Pakistan's Future Prosperity", which was organized by Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR) in collaboration with Pathfinder Group at a local hotel here on Saturday.
Speakers include Ahsan Zuberi Secretary General KCFR, former ambassador and chairman KCFR Shahid Ameen, Dr Fou McKenzie, vice president of China Institute for Contemporary International Relations and Huma Baqai. Ahsan Zuberi said that CPEC was a long-term project and it would benefit not only Pakistan and China but the whole region. He said that KCFR had so far signed eight MoUs with eight different countries and an agreement with Chinese Institute was going to be inked, shortly.
He said that KCFR had successfully organized 173 events in a short span of just 13 years and the services of KCFR had been acknowledged by the foreign office, which recently recommended the council for agreements with China and Iran. Moreover, Zuberi said that CPEC would promote more friendship between two countries.
Shahid Ameen said that CPEC would be a game changer for Pakistan and all provinces would be benefited through this project and added that CPEC would transform Gwadar as main regional hub. He hoped that this $46 billion project would improve economic growth by 2.5 per cent, which was 17 per cent of country's total GDP. Presently, the country is facing power shortfall of around 4500MW but this project would add 10000MW into national grid, which may help reviving the country's industrial sector besides generating billions of dollars through transit fee.
Moreover, he said this project would provide advantages not only to Pakistan but China as well because it would reduce transportation cost of China being incurred on partisan Gulf Sea route manifold. He said that China had to travel 12,000kms on partisan Gulf Sea despite having Malacca dilemma to export its products but CPEC would shrink the distance to only 2500kms. Despite all benefits for both countries, there are several internal and external hurdles, which need to be addressed to ensure the success of the CPEC, former ambassador said.
He said that although security was a vital requirement for the project, mutual agreement for eradicating terrorism among government, arm forces, political parties some two years ago would help Pakistan to make CPEC as biggest success. He opined that army action against the misguided elements in Balochistan would not yield sustainable results but authorities could achieve goals by winning their hearts and urged the authority concerned to give priority to the western route of the project with the aim to extenuate the sense of deprivation among Baloch nation.
Commenting on external challenges, Shahid said that apart from Indian response on the project, UAE especially Dubai and Iran for its Chabahar port were also taking CPEC with negative mindset. "Whatever the hurdles are, this is important that there is a political will from both sides to make this project a success," quoting as he said. Dr Fou said that CPEC would improve friendly relations between China and Pakistan and added that this huge project needs investments from market as well. He stressed upon the need of taking more initiatives to eradicate all internal and external challenges for the project.
Meanwhile, Huma Baqai said that all-parties' conference would not help the CPEC but maintaining transparency in this project would endorse its success, adding that although major economic activities being taken place in Punjab, the CPEC could not be successful without addressing the reservations of the smaller provinces.
She said that CPEC had complete ownership in Pakistan and it would boost country's economy by $274 billion, which was over 15 percent of total GDP and added that China through this project could also overcome the Malacca dilemma. She also termed the transparency in the project as the real challenge for the authorities. She also requested the authorities to make public project economic feasibility and environment report.
Ikram Sehgal Chairman Pathfinder Group said that we were facing high propaganda, sponsored terrorism and peoples were being planted in our academia and media to sabotage the project. He ruled out the possibilities that India would later join the project as it would also get economic benefits, saying that India would not allow leap jump to Pakistan for getting a lead on economic ground. He was of the view that Pakistan should give a clear message to UAE that: "Although Pakistan was your friend, it also requires similar gesture from them". A large number of participants including diplomats were also present on the occasion.