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BEIJING: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday that extensive efforts were being made for the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
“The CPEC is a core component of your visionary initiative of the One-Belt-One-Road project. We sincerely appreciate your commitment and leadership for the realisation of CPEC projects,” he said during a meeting with President Xi on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
The May 14-15 forum is being attended by 29 heads of state and government, besides delegates from around 130 countries.
Islamabad, Beijing sign deals worth nearly $500 million
Pakistan and China signed six accords of cooperation in diverse fields.
Mr Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang witnessed the signing ceremony at the Peoples Great Hall of China.
The memorandums of understanding reached countries pertain to: framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative and agreements on economic and technical cooperation (1.5 billion RMB for Gwadar Airport, etc and 1.1bn RMB for East Bay Expressway).
The worth of the accords is about $500 million. The MoUs add to $57bn already pledged for the CPEC.
According to the Prime Minister Sharif’s office, following deals are among the accords signed on Saturday:
• Two cooperation agreements worth $333m for an airport in Gwadar, site of a deepwater port that is to provide an outlet to the Arabian Sea from the far western Chinese province of Xinjiang.
• Establishment of the Havelian dry port in Pakistan.
• Agreement on economic and technical cooperation ($160m) for the East Bay Expressway linking Gwadar to Pakistan’s highway network.
During the meeting with President Xi, the prime minister was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM Pervaiz Khattak and Balochistan CM Sanaulllah Zehri, besides Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman and Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
President Xi was accompanied by a nine-member delegation.
Mr Sharif, who earlier met the Chinese premier, called for accelerating the implementation of projects in Gwadar and establishment of special economic and industrial zones.
“The presence of all four provincial chief ministers symbolises the broad-based support in Pakistan for cooperation with China and the CPEC,” he said.
Welcoming PM Sharif, President Xi expressed satisfaction over the pace of growing bilateral ties and resolved to cement the relations by enhancing cooperation in multiple spheres.
Meanwhile, addressing a Bhasha project conference organised by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), Prime Minister Sharif said that NEA had been an effec-tive partner in Pakistan’s fight to cope with the energy crisis.
The premier said that development of the North Indus Cascade is a major focus of his government, and the construction of Bhasha dam is the single most important initiative in this regard.”
Heads and representatives of power companies of China gave presentations on their study of the dam project and called for a deeper study on the project owing to its crucial nature for Pakistan.
Later, the prime minister witnessed the signing of an MoU on the roadmap for power projects by Water and Power Secretary Yousuf Naseem Khokhar and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong.
Besides, Prime Minister Sharif and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the OBOR Forum and discussed issues of bilateral interests and matters of regional and international importance.
Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017
Comments (52) Closed
At what interests, loans and terms of payment are these new deals ?? We are just singing on the dotted lines without thinking ??
Great news ...accord worth USD 50 billions!!.......Congratulations ...and Best Wishes Sir !!
CPEC is the chore project for Pakistan's economic growth
Nation has no trust on Corruption Mafia PML-N.
Now how much of it is locally financed ? The answer is zero, which means most of the revenue twill be used to service these debts and pay off Chinese stake holders. Pakistan will get the left overs. All these mega projects would require maintenance and how will Pakistan afford to maintain this infrastructure ? Our government can't even repair the current structures. Don't get me wrong,CPEC is a game changer and Pakistan can benefit from this for years to come but economically and financially it is not viable for agriculture and infant industries and none of the projects are locally financed. It would have been different if the main structure was funded by China and the remaining by Pakistan but everything is obtained through foreign banks or China. I think, Pakistan could have gained so much more only if it was properly planned and if strong feasibility reports were established incorporating comments of local Pakistani engineers, architects, environmentalists, bankers, farmers, etc.
CPEC Silk Road: Chinese loan-investment $57bn+, Pakistan's repayments $5bn a year.
A L L , whether Friend ?
@MSP: The War on Terror includes the Afghanistan War and the War in Iraq, etc. It has added $2 trillion to the debt to the current US budget. Costs of other nations in their contribution and damages, is much more than that. Therefore, the Chinese initiative of OBOR even of $ 1 trillion, would be nothing if it could join the world in sanitizing and securing its future devastated by the current disjointed wars of negative results.
So $500 million dollars of new loans ?. Next 5 generations of Pakistan will have to pay these Chinese debts and loans
"CPEC Silk Road: Chinese loan-investment $57bn+, Pakistan's repayments $5bn a year."
@M. Emad $5Bn per year for how many years ? . 20 ? 50 ?
The current forex reserves of Pakistan are around $20bn and we have NEW loan of $57bn+ interests plus earlier debts ...... cool
It's 500 millions not billions.
Sir does anyone knows Sri Lanka is a big example, where an unviable Hambantota port project has left Colombo reeling under $8 billion debt.
@M. Emad All the rules will be decided by China and Chinese companies. No direct money available to host contry, no local jobs available to natives. Enviornment, communities and border disputes are not addressed.
@M. Emad host countries will protect Chinese trucks.
what is obor without india ?its a link cut off and still pakistan has to pay 6 billion every year along with amount and loan ! good riddance of enemy by iron friend !thanks china !
@M. Emad: Why you worry?
@Aftab wait & watch movies just started no body will give anything free China economy slowing down they have huge foreign reserved which needs to utilise that's why they investing in Pakistan
look at the humility and humbleness on the Chinese presidients face and just look at the ego and pride in our PM's eyes. Its the Chinese who should be showing arrogance as lenders and us who should be exhibiting gratitude as recipients.
@Sab se pehle pakistan
Majority of Pakistanis still support PML(N). Appreciate China-Pak friendship.
I have one question for cpec chinese give loan which will repay by pakistan with interest means chinese easily send there finished good to European countries and earn money and Pakistan maintain those roads and also pay interest all manufacturing gone to chinese company means they also earn profit from those manufacturing road or sea port or others thing and we take those money from china and paid interest know development Pakistani industrolies not compete with china industries so what is future everbudy know over all result pakistan take loan to build roads to supply finished goods to world and to build those roads chinese give loan that repay with interest to china and also those chinese company take profit also it means if china give loan only 1 % plus chinese company profit at least 20% means pakistan return 21 % more to china and china easily supply there goods abroad
@Mohajir You.don't need to bother about it
@M. Emad So what is alrernate you suggest?
@Javed: China will give Pakistan some defence materials.
@Sab se pehle pakistan ,learn to take some good out of bad. KPK CM did.
@M. Emad Everything is working so good in Bangladesh. Everybody is rich and live a very good life.
CPEC will be a big FAILURE without India and China knows it . Giving mindless and false platonic statements of the ''door still open'' is just for domestic consumption of Chinese readers. The very fact that China has committed far too many diplomatic mistakes ranging from NSG to Masood Azhar , will now singe it . The OBOR chapter has been closed and obviated by India in entirety . China can keep whinging about it. India does not need to Join given the way China has been behaving on a number of issues. India should focus energies on developing very strong relations with USA, Japan, Russia, UK , France , Germany, Australia, Canada etc etc. It should create a deadline by which the trade with China is balanced or Chinese imports will be severely curtailed. China has been mighty arrogant considering it is India that spoke up for including China in the Security Council when no one else was speaking for China. India does not need OBOR and without India OBOR will never fully develop.
@Mohajir , Oh you have forgotten to calculate all the financial and social benefits of this projects. If the CPEC was so bad for Pakistan why Indian are all of a sudden so sad for us? On the other hand she financials World experts and publications are parsing it.
Pakistan takes a loan of $50 billion dollars,to become the world's biggest toll booth.Great achievement.
@sam inshallah well said bro ! yes everything is great in bangladesh ! wise and smart working people you know !
After initial excitement dies out the reality will sink in.
'The worth of the accords is about $500 million. The MoUs add to $57bn already pledged for the CPEC.'
We up and away while others stand watching as our train of progress pulls away leaving the fools behind.
@M. Emad pakistan trade surplus will be $45 billion. I think we can afford $5 bn repayment.
@ SAM
PAKISTAN'S DEBT CLOCK
You could wrap $1 bills around the Earth 253 times with the debt amount!
If you lay $1 bills on top of each other they would make a pile 7,108 km, or 4,417 miles high!
That's equivalent to 0.02 trips to the Moon!
Debt as % of GDP 58.40% , Interest per second 17435, Interest per year 549.91 billions
Great !!!
( Source: NATIONAL DEBTS CLOCKS.ORG)
@M. Emad What is the point here?
Red carpet welcome of Nawaz Sharif shows how he is transforming PAKISTAN and turning it like China
Cheap propaganda against the mega socioeconomic development project in Pakistan, the CPEC.
@ARSHAD,Canada : nothing good has comr or will come with Corruption Mafias leading our country. Open your eyes and see the reality.
The relationship should be based on equality.
@ZAK " Pakistan trade surplus will be $45 billion. I think we can afford $5 bn repayment"
(A) Pakistan’s trade deficit ballooned by 38.8 per cent to an all-time high $23.385 billion during the first nine months of the current financial year. (i.e. 2016-17)
(B) The overall import bill rose by 18.67pc year-on-year to $38.504bn during nine months of the current financial year (July-March). In March alone, it increased by 41.22pc to $5.009bn.
( C) Export proceeds during nine months of the current fiscal year declined by 3.06pc to $15.119bn. In March, however, export proceeds witnessed a growth of 3.62pc, mainly because of an increase in exports of value-added textile products.
( Source: Article by Mubarak Zeb Khan DAWN Edition 12/04/2017 )
This route is more meant for Chinese exports..I still can't understand how it is going to benefit Pakistan.. May be mechanics are going to make merry out of this.
I bet NS never mentioned how many poor workers from Gawadar were killed yesterday during this meeting - working on this Chinese project, while all the CPEC Security apparatus is dedicated to protecting Chinese personnel and their investments.
Looking at the photograph of Nawaz and Xi the thing that comes to mind is the saying " enemy's enemy is my friend"
More loans
@MAS Of course we need to worry. Our neighbor is under dept is concern for us.
@SAUDAGAR i agree. OBOR is nothing without India because just modi's ego is bigger than OBOR geographic area
@M. Emad 5 billion is the peak figure for year 2022 only. It also includes profit repatriation and the return of principal amount too.For other years the average is around 3 billion a year.Besides the article which pinned that 5 billion figure also mentioned that the profit from CPEC transit would amount to $ 8 Billion too.Which would make it a net profit.So in effect we wouldn't have to pay anything.
So the local nawab has given the report to the King. And one secretary, water and/or power signed something with the Viceroy general too.
@Pk So what? China is making huge investment. We/Pak should try to maximize benefits for Pak out of this mega project.
M. EMAD FLIPFLOP MOHAJIR. CPEC is a life-time opportunity for Pakistan, on its completion and full operation, the Pakistan of today will not be the same Pakistan, It will be a new Pakistan with prosperity, Job opportunities, flourishing economy, competing with most of the Western countries. Sincere Pakistanis love it, only the most ignorant and the worst enemies of Pakistan try to make it an issue of dispute. CPEC is of course a nightmare and stomachache for India, and all of a sudden they started giving us their advices against CPEC, since they don’t like Pakistan to stand up on its feet. Pakistan is so lucky to have an honest, sincere and dependable neighbor like China, long live Pak-China friendship.
@M. Emad China is Pakistan most trusted, honest, and dependable neighbor, CPEC is of course a nightmare and stomachache for Ignorant and the enemies of Pakistan, all of a sudden the Indians started giving us advices against CPEC, even they approached Chinese Government to drop this project, lest Pakistan stand up on its feet. Long-Live-Pak-China-Friendship.
@MSP
50 million looks like 50 billions? For Pakistan, every help and deal is in billions.
CPEC is the chinies visionary industrialisation and grabbing Pakistani natural resources with engulfing all of manufacturing and technological industry with the provision of free capital. Its good for common man to get the goods at cheap price but nightmare for the visionless industrialists....