Pak policymakers recommend better management of CPEC

A group of policymakers on Tuesday recommended Pakistan to establish a specific China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) unit within the framework of Council of Common Interests (CCI), in order to achieve "transparency and efficiency" in the project.

On the launch of 10th Annual Report titled 'The State of the Economy: CPEC Review and Analysis', Shahid Javed Burki of the Institute of Public Policy opined that the Chinese-funded project had not yet been fully "defined and developed".

"To realise its full potential, the CPEC program must have the support of all the citizens," he said.

The CCI is a constitutional body in Pakistan, which resolves the disputes of power-sharing between the country and its provinces. The body is chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

According to the report, it stated that proper planning of the four proposed functional zones was essentially imperative for harnessing the comparative and competitive advantage of each zone based on agro and other value chains, The Express Tribune reported.

Burki claimed that the CPEC project was expected to add 2 percent growth to Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) and greater integration of the country's backward areas with the developed areas.

Stressing on the benefit of the economic corridor, Burki added, "CPEC will also link Pakistan with the global economic system from which it has remained relatively detached."

Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Ishrat Husain who also attended the event, touted the CPEC project to help in boosting technology and human development in Pakistan.

The building of the USD 62 billion economic corridor gives China access to waterways which is about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. When built, it will link Gwadar to Xinjiang region in China.

In response to it, a certain section of people, especially the Baloch people have harboured fears of Pakistan being colonised by the Chinese.

India against the CPEC project since it passes through the disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) region.