A Pakistani newspaper report on the broad contours of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) implementation plan till 2030 has attracted criticism from the government, which said the details were quoted from one of the working papers among many prepared to be discussed with the Chinese leadership at the One Belt One Road Summit.
The Dawn said it had acquired exclusive access to the original document that discloses for the first time what the Chinese intentions and priorities in Pakistan are for the next decade and three years.
Opposition parties have called for making the details of the plan public before finalising the projects. Nafisa Shah, an MP from the Pakistan People's Party, said the government must come clean on the long term plan published by Dawn , which has huge implications for the Pakistan economy.
Asad Umar, economic expert and leader of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaf, alleged that lack of government’s seriousness may affect this project. “This is the kind of lack of seriousness, which has resulted in Pakistan losing rather than gaining from all free trade agreements we have signed, ” he said.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said he was appalled at the Dawn report and called it factually incorrect. “We couldn’t release the Long Term Plan without final consultation with the Chinese side which was done yesterday,” he tweeted.
The newspaper reacted sharply to the Minister's remarks on the report in its editorial on Tuesday. “The general sentiment is pro-CPEC; and this newspaper also supports the project. But that does not mean the government has carte blanche to negotiate the terms of this massive enterprise entirely in secret. The people have a right to know what exactly is being negotiated; this is especially crucial given the scale of the joint enterprise," Dawn wrote .
The newspaper report noted that much-trumpeted Gwadar Port in the long term plan has no mention of China’s external trade being routed through Gwadar. “Judging from their conversations with the government, it appears that the Pakistanis are pushing the Chinese to begin work on the Gwadar International Airport, whereas the Chinese are pushing for early completion of the Eastbay Expressway,” the report said.
While unveiling the plan, the report said it was drawn up by the China Development Bank and National Development Reform Commission of China goes beyond the scope of CPEC, which initially was considered as a trade route from Kashgar China to the Gwadar Port in Balochistan Province. Although it envisaged industrial zones and power plants, the plan now includes leasing out thousands of acres of agricultural land to Chinese enterprises to set up demonstration projects in areas ranging from seed varieties to irrigation technology.
The plan includes penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society by Chinese enterprises and culture. “In other cases, such as textiles and garments, cement and building materials, fertilizer and agricultural technologies it calls for building the infrastructure and a supporting policy environment to facilitate fresh entry. A key element in this is the creation of industrial parks, or special economic zones, which “must meet specified conditions, including availability of water…perfect infrastructure, sufficient supply of energy and the capacity of self service power”, says the plan.
The report stated that Chinese enterprises will also operate their own farms, processing facilities for fruits and vegetables and grain, while logistics companies will operate a large storage and transportation system for agrarian produce. Due to lack of cold-chain logistics and processing facilities, 50% of agricultural products go bad during harvesting and transport”, it noted.
The plan includes the construction of one fertilizer plant by Chinese company NPK as a starting point with an annual output of 800,000 tonnes. “Enterprises will be inducted to lease farm implements like tractors, efficient plant protection machinery, efficient energy saving pump equipment, precision fertilization drip irrigation equipment and planting and harvesting machinery,” it added.
Meat processing plants in Sindh Province are planned with an annual output of 200,000 tonnes per year and two demonstration plants processing 200,000 tonnes of milk a year. In crops, demonstration projects of more than 6,500 acres will be set up for high yield seeds and irrigation, mostly in Punjab. In transport and storage, the plan aims to build a nationwide logistics network, and enlarge the warehousing and distribution network between major cities of Pakistan with a focus on grains, vegetables and fruits. “Storage bases will be built first in Islamabad and Gwadar in the first phase, then Karachi, Lahore and another in Gwadar in the second phase, and between 2026-2030, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar will each see another storage base.”
The plan also included a vegetable processing plant with annual output of 20,000 tonnes, fruit juice and jam plant of 10,000 tonnes and grain processing of 1 million tonnes. A cotton processing plant is also planned initially, with output of 100,000 tonnes a year.
The plan said that China plans to gradually create a favourable industry image and reputation for Pakistan by relying on domestic demand.
The plan for western and northwestern zones covering most of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provinces is marked for mineral extraction, with potential in chrome ore and gold reserves and diamonds. China is Pakistan’s largest buyer of processed marble, at almost 80,000 tonnes per year. The plan looks to add 12 marble and granite processing sites in locations ranging from northern areas of Gilgit and Kohistan and Khuzdar in Baluchistan.
While the central zone marked for textiles, household appliances and cement in Punjab cities of Daudkhel, Khushab, Esakhel and Mianwali.
Some Chinese enterprises have started investment and construction in Gwadar taking advantage of its superior geographical position and cheap shipping costs to import crude oil from the Middle East, iron ore and coking coal resources from South Africa and New Zealand for onward supply to the local market as well as South Asia and Middle East after processing at port.
The plan shows great interest in the textiles industry with the interest focused largely on yarn and coarse cloth to benefit Xinjiang where the textile industry has already attained higher levels of productivity. “China can make the most of the Pakistani market in cheap raw materials to develop the textiles & garments industry and help soak up surplus labor forces in Kashgar,” it noted.
A full system of monitoring and surveillance will be built in cities from Peshawar to Karachi, with 24 hour video recordings on roads and busy marketplaces for law and order. A national fibre-optic backbone will be built for the country not only for Internet traffic, but also terrestrial distribution of broadcast TV, which will cooperate with Chinese media in the dissemination of Chinese culture. “There is a plan to build a pilot safe city in Peshawar, which faces a fairly severe security situation in northwestern Pakistan following which the program will be extended to major cities such as Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi,” according to the plan.
The plan also focuses on promoting tourism and speaks of a long belt of coastal enjoyment industry that includes yacht wharfs, cruise home ports, night-life, city parks, public squares, theatres, golf courses and spas, hot spring hotels and water sports. The plan also recommends visa-free tourism possible with China to provide more convenient policy support for Chinese tourists to Pakistan.
But the plan also underlined the risks involved in the project stating that competing political parties, religion, tribes, terrorists, and Western intervention as the possible risks. On top of it all the security situation is the worst in recent years according to the report. On the economic side rising inflation can see a decline in profits.
The plan recommends Pakistan’s federal and local governments should also bear part of the responsibility for financing through issuing sovereign guarantee bonds, meanwhile protecting and improving the proportion and scale of the government funds invested in corridor construction in the financial budget.
