by Omer Farooq Khan in Times of India, Sept 27, 2023
ISLAMABAD: Beijing has turned down several of Islamabad’s proposals related to direct investments in multiple sectors under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), including energy, tourism, water management and climate change, minutes of a key panel meeting indicate.
The signed minutes of the CPEC’s Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) bring to fore the formidable challenges both sides face in deepening economic ties.
The JCC meet was held in October 2022 and its minutes were signed by the Chinese Vice-Premier and Pakistan’s former planning minister Ahsan Iqbal on July 31 this year. The delay underscores the chasm. The draft shared with Beijing by Pakistan and the final minutes signed by both sides were different in many ways.
China disagreed with a host of measures Pakistan proposed. The final document indicates that Islamabad has given up its opposition to a number of Chinese demands in order to address Beijing’s concerns.
Details of the minutes reported by a local daily reveal that China had turned down cooperation in cross-border tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Pakistan-controlled Jammu and Kashmir and the country’s coastal areas.
China, the report suggested, also did not agree to Pakistan’s push for inclusion of water resources management and climate change and urban infrastructure development in the CPEC framework. A plan for a new joint working group on water resources management and climate change was also rejected.
A plan for a transmission line from Hub to Gwadar in Balochistan province to link the seaport city with the national grid in the CPEC framework did not get approval, either. The same happened to a proposal to include two hydel power projects in the CPEC energy cooperation list and its implementation by Chinese investors.
Other Islamabad plans that did not make the grade with Beijing included a proposal to develop a policy framework for coal gasification for fertiliser projects based on coal in the southern Sindh province’s Thar desert. Similarly, China did not agree to meet Pakistan’s energy needs from indigenous resources and conversion of coal into other products for domestic demand as well as exports.
Pakistan had proposed Chinese participation in a strategic underground gas storage project but it was not included in the final minutes. The minutes are also silent on a push to get Chinese technology for joint exploration, development and marketing of metallic minerals.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/china-pakistan-corridor-expansion-hits-bumps/articleshowprint/103970636.cms
