Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan

The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)" project, supported by the Chinese side, is being launched one after another. The project seeks to promote Pakistan's economic growth by building power plants, ports and highways.

Can this huge project with a total investment of 63 billion U.S. dollars (about 398.8 billion yuan) succeed? On January 31, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the example of the "OBOR" forefront Gwadar and Thar coal fields.

Fishing village transformed into business districtIn the southwestern part of Pakistan, Gwadar, a fishing village surrounded by the Pinnacles and the desert, is gradually becoming a huge industrial and commercial area. In the first phase of investment of about 410 million U.S. dollars, a 660-meter container terminal was built here. Trade areas with offices and customs facilities are stepping up their efforts. The project is being built and operated by COPHC, a large port services company that employs more than a thousand people, including about 500 Chinese workers.

Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan is building office buildings and trade-related facilities Image credit: Nihon Keizai Shimbun

Starting with a logistics center equipped with aquatic processing facilities and warehouses, it plans to build the Gulf Coast Expressway, the new airport and vocational training schools in the future. Dostyn Gwadar, Chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority, stressed: "Gwadar port will become the central port for connecting the two countries to Afghanistan and Central Asia, not just the trade and logistics center, and will strive to attract the factories of motorcycles and electronic components into the industrial park with the bonded area , Will be cultivated here as a major industrial base. " Dostan also said that "not only China, but also Europe, the United States and other Asian enterprises can also use this port."

Develop electricity that sleeps in the desert

The Tal Coalfield Development Project is another major project of the CMB Economic Corridor tied with Gwadar Port. The coal field is located in a desert area 50 km from the Indian-Pakistan border. Responsible for the development of the second large opencast coal mine is a large chaebol Dawood Hercules under Anglo Power (Engro) and China Machinery Engineering (CMEC) and other components of the joint venture.

24-Hour Operation of Large Dump Trucks and Excavators at No. 2 Block, Tar Power Coalfield, Southeast of Pakistan

In Thal Coal, dozens of large dump trucks and excavators work 24 hours a day. There are even 28 very rare female truck drivers in Pakistan.

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The mined coal will be used for a 3.5-kilometer coal-fired joint-venture thermal power station under construction and the power station aims to start operation in June 2019. The total investment of Phase 1 project is about 3 billion U.S. dollars. Shamsuddin Ahmad Shaikh, chief executive of Engro, said: "This will be the largest private investment project in the CMB Economic Corridor." It is planned to expand the power plant to eleven to raise the generating capacity from the initial 640 MW to 3630 MW.

However, the CMB economic corridor can not be separated from China's investment and financing. Pakistan needs to repay more than seven billion U.S. dollars of International Monetary Fund debt and European debt in five years from 2020. For debt-ridden Pakistan, economic corridor projects are likely to become a heavy burden.