Comment by Riaz Haq on May 12, 2017 at 7:47am

Arvind Subramanian, economic adviser to Narendra #Modi: #India will catch up with #China in 20 or 30 years" https://www.ft.com/content/6aa3ec6a-3013-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a via @FT

One of India’s most important economists on globalisation and how he expects the country to catch up ‘with China in 20 or 30 years’


Arvind Subramanian owes both his job and his plush New Delhi residence to the same man: India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, who hired him as the government’s chief economic adviser in 2014. Subramanian hurriedly departed from his role at a US think-tank and moved back home to work in the finance department, only to find himself lodged temporarily in a humdrum guest house. “The finance minister was very sweet,” he says. “He rang the housing minister, and said, ‘I want him to get a very nice house.’ ”


Subramanian now lives in New Moti Bagh: a leafy estate in the heart of the capital, where grace-and-favour bungalows are granted only to elite civil servants, making it arguably the most powerful neighbourhood in India. “This place has been called the new Forbidden City,” he says, in reference to the walled imperial palace in Beijing, the heart of Chinese government for five centuries. India’s equivalent is less forbidding: a compound of 116 white bungalows and 10 apartment blocks nestled amid pleasant parks, through which the resident officials, judges and military top brass go for their morning walks.

Subramanian is sitting in the spacious living room of his own six-bedroom, two-storey home, dressed in a white linen shirt, black jeans and brown leather loafers. At 57, he looks trim and speaks with rapid, Tigger-ish energy. Outside, the mid-afternoon sunshine is falling on his front garden, whose verges are filled with lush green shrubs.

The house resembles a colonial-era bungalow, with a roof terrace on the second floor and two sets of servants’ quarters at the rear. It is actually newer than it looks, he says: the entire area was rebuilt about a decade ago, hence the “new” in New Moti Bagh. Though spartan when he arrived — “there was maybe a wooden bed, a cabinet, but basically nothing else” — the interior is now pleasantly decorated with furniture he and his wife Parul shipped back from Washington DC, including a series of Impressionist-style paintings by his elderly father, a retired civil servant.

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Subramanian admits he has learnt to watch his step on delicate topics, in public at least, giving an example of debates about protecting cows, which some conservative Hindus consider sacred. “I was asked for my views on the beef ban in Mumbai and said jokingly that if I speak on this I’ll probably lose my job — and that went on the front page of The Indian Express,” he recalls. “In that case I was told to be a bit more careful.”


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Modi’s support for globalisation is deeper than most people realise, he adds, a flip side of the fact that India is now a much more open economy than commonly acknowledged. The country’s future growth is not without challenges, however. “We have this whole ambivalence about the private sector which we’ve never really overcome,” he says. Yet he remains bullish, claiming that he expects India to catch up with China “within the next 20 or 30 years or so”.

This will happen even as globalisation is set to slow down somewhat, he argues, albeit only compared with the unusually rapid growth in trade seen during the 2000s. “‘Hyper-globalisation is dead, long live globalisation,’ is how I like to put it,” he says. “If you look crudely at the postwar period, 80 per cent of globalisation is driven by technology, 20 per cent by policy. And that 80 per cent, you can’t stop.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 13, 2017 at 8:20pm

#China to invest $50 billion in #Indus River Cascade for additional 40,000 MW hydropower in #Pakistan. #CPEC #OBOR

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1408444/mega-deal-china-invest-50b-dev...

ISLAMABAD: In a major development that may attract $50 billion Chinese investment to Pakistan, Islamabad is expected to sign an MoU with Beijing on Saturday (today) for financing and developing the North Indus River Cascade which has the potential to generate 40,000MW hydro electricity.

The $50 billion investment comes on top of the $46 billion investment being provided by the Chinese government and Chinese banks for financing power and road infrastructure projects in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

With the signing of the MoU – which will be witnessed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is on an official visit to China – Beijing will emerge as the biggest financier of infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

According to the studies conducted by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Pakistan has an identified potential of producing up to 60,000MW of hydroelectric power.

Some 40,000MW of this potential power is located in the region called the Indus River Cascade, which begins from Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan and runs through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as far as Tarbela, the site of Pakistan’s biggest dam in.

The Indus River Cascade includes Diamer-Bhasha Dam project for which Pakistan needs $15 billion financing. Other multilateral donors were not willing to invest on this project but now China has come up to finance this mega project.

Sources said the Chinese side conducted survey and studies on the North Indus Cascade including the sites of Pattan, Thacoat, Bunji, Dasau and Diamer in February 2017.

The Chinese side in their last high-level meeting agreed to convert the survey and initial study to an MoU whereby the Chinese will conduct a detailed study spanning over a period of three months on a developing roadmap for financing that will lead to initiation and completion of these mega projects.

Sources said this will be Pakistan’s first-ever private sector investment in mega projects in hydel resources as until now only Wapda led such projects. The most important development could be the Chinese undertaking of these projects as it has a vast experience for building such huge dams.

According to the sources, the CPEC and the North Indus River Cascade can be the biggest-ever Chinese investment in Pakistan.

In 2015, the owner of the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, China Three Gorges (CTG) Corporation, had expressed willingness to participate in a financing consortium to fund up to $50 billion of hydroelectric power projects in Pakistan.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 16, 2017 at 9:38pm

Atta-ur-Rahman
May 17, 2017

Foreign varsities in Pakistan

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/204820-Foreign-varsities-in-Pakistan

During the last two years, I have travelled to Austria, Italy and France to explore the possibility of establishing top class engineering and technology universities in Pakistan. These journeys were to convince the leading varsities in these countries to form consortia of their best universities which could then set up top class educational institutions in Pakistan.

We spend over Rs100 billion every year to send our children abroad for good foreign education. Why can’t all this money be saved if we can educate our children at foreign universities in our own country? After all schoolchildren prepare for and take their O level and A level examinations from the University of Cambridge without physically travelling to the varsity in the UK. The same can be done at the university level.

An important step to strengthen engineering education and research in Pakistan was taken in 2004 when I was chairman of the Higher Education Commission. It was decided to establish a network of several world class foreign engineering universities in Pakistan. The model chosen was visionary and unique. It involved partnerships with consortia of top universities (rather than with any single foreign university) so that good quality foreign faculty could become available in sufficient numbers in Pakistan......... On May 19, 2008, just three months after ECNEC had granted approval to the projects, the new government abandoned the programme completely. 
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I did not give up. In 2015, I approached Imran Khan with the idea and he immediately agreed to set up an Austrian university in Haripur and Hazara. The university is being funded by KP government and four of the best universities of Applied Science and Technology (‘Fachhochschule’) have agreed to form a consortium and give their degrees in Pakistan.

After that, I approached CM Shahbaz Sharif and he too agreed to set up an engineering university in the Lahore Knowledge Park. A consortium of the top Italian engineering universities has been formed and classes are expected to start in 2018 provided that a dynamic CEO can be appointed without wasting more time in the Lahore Knowledge Park. If this does not happen in a timely manner, the programmes will need to be postponed till 2019.

I have also approached the chief minister of Sindh who has a distinguished engineering background – having been trained in Stanford – but his decision to set up a foreign engineering university in his province is still awaited. Discussions with French, Chinese and Swedish institutions for the establishment of similar foreign engineering universities in other major cities of Pakistan are also under way.

These universities will focus on the following fields: industrial process engineering, energy, new materials, agricultural engineering/biotechnology, material sciences/nanotechnology, artificial intelligence/ robotics, big date, genomics and other fast emerging areas. There are opportunities opening up in many fields. For instance, biotechnology is changing the face of agriculture and medicine these days. Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg had once stated: “In view of the current power of biotechnology and its even brighter future, there is no question that the less developed countries must now position and strengthen their status in biotechnology...” .

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2017 at 7:55am

Behind China’s $1 Trillion Plan to Shake Up the Economic Order

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/business/china-railway-one-belt-...

VANG VIENG, Laos — Along the jungle-covered mountains of Laos, squads of Chinese engineers are drilling hundreds of tunnels and bridges to support a 260-mile railway, a $6 billion project that will eventually connect eight Asian countries.

Chinese money is building power plants in Pakistan to address chronic electricity shortages, part of an expected $46 billion worth of investment.

Chinese planners are mapping out train lines from Budapest to Belgrade, Serbia, providing another artery for Chinese goods flowing into Europe through a Chinese-owned port in Greece.

The massive infrastructure projects, along with hundreds of others across Asia, Africa and Europe, form the backbone of China’s ambitious economic and geopolitical agenda. President Xi Jinping of China is literally and figuratively forging ties, creating new markets for the country’s construction companies and exporting its model of state-led development in a quest to create deep economic connections and strong diplomatic relationships.

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China is moving so fast and thinking so big that it is willing to make short-term missteps for what it calculates to be long-term gains. Even financially dubious projects in corruption-ridden countries like Pakistan and Kenya make sense for military and diplomatic reasons.

The United States and many of its major European and Asian allies have taken a cautious approach to the project, leery of bending to China’s strategic goals. Some, like Australia, have rebuffed Beijing’s requests to sign up for the plan. Despite projects on its turf, India is uneasy because Chinese-built roads will run through disputed territory in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.


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The power plants in Pakistan, as well as upgrades to a major highway and a $1 billion port expansion, are a political bulwark. By prompting growth in Pakistan, China wants to blunt the spread of Pakistan’s terrorists across the border into the Xinjiang region, where a restive Muslim population of Uighurs resides. It has military benefits, providing China’s navy future access to a remote port at Gwadar managed by a state-backed Chinese company with a 40-year contract.

Many countries in the program have serious needs. The Asian Development Bank estimated that emerging Asian economies need $1.7 trillion per year in infrastructure to maintain growth, tackle poverty and respond to climate change.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2017 at 8:41pm

Debunking The Myth of #China Colonizing #Pakistan. #CPEC #OBOR #India http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/05/cpec-helps-china-colonize-pakistan/ … via @ValueWalk After DAWN published the exclusive CPEC master plan revealing China’s seemingly apparent plans to colonize Pakistan and turn it into its own economic colony, the Indian media erupted with amusing reports. Media outlets claimed that Beijing is taking away the independence that the Pakistanis regained from the British Empire with their blood and sweat nearly 70 years ago. But the idea of China colonizing Pakistan and establishing a comprehensive, nationwide control – economic, governmental and military – over Islamabad should not be so amusing to Indians. If it really happens, they would have to worry about the Chinese growing regional might not only on their country’s northern and eastern borders but also the western one. 

DAWN released the exclusive CPEC master plan, which has even made some Pakistanis explode with outrage over the alleged colonial appetite of the Chinese during the first One Belt, One Road summit, which hosted government officials from 57 countries earlier this week. While the master plan does offer a gloomy outlook for the Pakistanis, who are no strangers to struggling with colonialism from foreign powers, let’s not forget that every coin has two sides.
Let’s flip the coin for a second and take a look at the not-so-gloomy outlook for the Pakistani economy and the Pakistani people in general as a result of the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The project is expected to create 2 million direct and indirect jobs in Pakistan alone and boost the country’s GDP growth rate to 7.5%, according to a report by U.S.-based consulting firm Deloitte and Touche.

CPEC improves livelihood of people in Pakistan

Like every development project between two nations, CPEC offers both benefits and negative impacts.

For example, the CPEC master plan cited by DAWN reveals China’s plans to take over “thousands of acres” of agricultural land in Pakistan for “demonstration projects.” But let’s not forget that those very infrastructure, roads and highways developed by CPEC create unprecedented opportunities for poor Pakistani regions which have been surviving below the poverty line for decades.

And while Pakistani governments both past and present have struggled to help those poor regions break free, the foreign investment that comes with CPEC could make a significant difference for the poor living nearby and inside the regions connected to the corridor. It’s not only the estimations that CPEC will create 2 million employment opportunities for the Pakistanis that improve the livelihood of locals, but also the fact that the corridor connects hinterlands with coasts, allowing big businesses to move to neglected regions. 

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2017 at 8:41pm

Debunking The Myth of #China Colonizing #Pakistan. #CPEC #OBOR #India http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/05/cpec-helps-china-colonize-pakistan/ … via @ValueWalk 

China builds hospitals and schools in Pakistan with CPEC

To quote the DAWN report citing the CPEC master plan, China is set to create a “full system” of monitoring and surveillance for major Pakistani cities from Peshawar to Karachi and is even set to spread Chinese propaganda through the country’s TV, delivering it through fiber optic cables. While China’s vast investments into CPEC open the door for the Chinese to create monitoring and surveillance systems in Pakistan, it’s worth pointing out that the infrastructure projects spurred by the Chinese investment are improving the livelihood of the Pakistani people.

While probably no one can argue against the importance of high-quality hospitals and schools for every country and the livelihood of its people, China is opening medical centers, hospitals and educational institutions in Pakistan. Earlier this month, residents of Pakistan’s southwestern port city of Gwadar saw the opening of a hospital donated by China. Besides the hospital that allows for better emergency medical treatment to Pakistanis, China also built a new school in the port city in September 2016.

More medical and educational infrastructure projects spurred by China’s investments are set to open along CPEC in the coming months and years.

How bad is China’s “colonization” for Pakistan’s economy?

The DAWN report further notes that the CPEC master plan “envisages a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society by Chinese enterprises and culture.” While the actual “negative” impact of such “deep and broad-based penetration” is yet to be seen, China’s penetration of various sectors of the Pakistani economy, especially its energy sectors, does not sound like bad news.

Energy is actually the game-changing pillar of CPEC projects and China’s investments in Pakistan. In fact, 11 of the 19 early harvest projects under CPEC have a goal of ensuring an uninterrupted supply of electricity. While as much as $34 billion of the entire CPEC Chinese investment has been allocated to electricity production and distribution alone, the coal-fired plants, hydropower facilities, and wind and solar power farms that are being built in Pakistan are expected to prevent cuts of the electricity supply in the country, significantly improving the livelihood of the populace and helping make the Pakistani economy work more efficiently.

While the DAWN report suggests that Chinese enterprises “will play the lead role in each field” of the Pakistani economy, a “leading role” of the world’s second biggest economy in a neighboring state that is tightly connected to it already cannot be a negative thing. CPEC connects Xinjiang to Gwadar and Karachi, with pathways of the projects running through the entire country, thus improving connectivity and creating new supply and logistic chains – things the past and present governments of Pakistan have struggled to do without foreign investments over decades.

So is CPEC a BAD THING for Pakistan?

The seemingly apparent colonization plans brewing in the minds of the Chinese leadership also include being respectful to the locals. The DAWN report says that Chinese enterprises would be advised to “respect the religions and customs of the local people, treat people as equals and live in harmony.”

Most Pakistanis have been living under the illusion that each and every citizen of their country would become wealthy and prosperous thanks to CPEC. But that’s not necessarily true, as the corridor only gives the means for Pakistani people and Pakistani businesses – both small and big – to benefit from the game-changing project and its vast economic opportunities.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2017 at 10:42pm

China takes ‘project of the century’ to Pakistan
As part of its ‘One Belt, One Road’ project Beijing is pumping $55bn into its neighbour amid doubts over who really benefits

https://www.ft.com/content/05979e18-2fe4-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a


The leak of China’s original proposals for the CPEC agreement in the Pakistan newspaper Dawn this week heightened fears. The terms prioritise the industrial ambitions of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a quasi-
military organisation vital to Beijing’s oil and security policies which also dominates the agricultural economy of the frontier region of Xinjiang.

Comparing it with the trading organisation that paved the way for British rule in India, the head of a large investment company in Pakistan says: “We have to be careful if we don’t want this to turn into a repeat of the East India Company. If we squander it, it will.”

China wants to complete four main tasks via CPEC: expand the Gwadar port on Pakistan’s south coast, which it financed, built and owns, build a fleet of power plants, construct road and rail links and set up special economic zones where companies can enjoy tax breaks and other business incentives.

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In building infrastructure, Beijing is doing for Pakistan what Islamabad has been unable to do for itself, especially as far as power generation is concerned. Peak electricity demand in Pakistan is 6 gigawatts greater than it can generate — equivalent to about 12 medium-sized coal power plants. Blackouts in many parts of the country last for several hours a day.

To meet this shortfall China is expected to spend more than $35bn — about two-thirds of the entire CPEC budget — building or helping to construct 21 power plants, which will be mainly fuelled by coal. The combined 16GW of capacity that they could provide would repair Pakistan’s supply gap twice over.

The building work associated with CPEC has already boosted heavy industry in the country. Arif Habib, one of the country’s biggest business conglomerates, says it is trebling its cement production in anticipation of CPEC.

“China will expand the [economic] pie,” says Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s planning minister. “This project will create new [domestic] demand.”


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“The risk is that down the line China will call the shots and that we will pay the price later,” says Syed Murad Ali Shah, the chief minister of Sindh, the province in which Karachi is located. “It is up to us.”

The Chinese plan, revealed by Dawn newspaper to have been delivered in December 2015, has only added to those concerns. It talks about thousands of acres of agricultural land leased out to Chinese enterprises to develop seed varieties and irrigation technology. It would install a full system of monitoring and surveillance in cities from Peshawar to Karachi, with 24-hour video recordings on roads. It would build a national network of fibre-optic cables to boost internet access.

Key to this is the XPCC. Under the plan the Han Chinese economic and paramilitary organisation is mandated to invest in Pakistan as a springboard for economic development around Kashgar, the heartland of 11m Turkic-speaking Muslims known as Uighurs.

Ministers in Islamabad say the document contains proposals originally drawn up by Beijing, but will not say how far the draft agreements, which are still being negotiated, differ from it.

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Whatever the concerns in Pakistan that Islamabad is ceding too much power to China, many in the business and political communities argue that the benefits from the infrastructure projects are well worth it.

“Pakistan requires money and money has no colour,” Kimihide Ando, head of Mitsubishi Corp in Pakistan, says.

Others argue that, following the problems with the free-trade agreement, Pakistan’s ministers will be more savvy this time. “The Chinese have taken us for a ride [before] but we have let them,” says Ehsan Malik, chief executive of the Pakistan Business Council. “Given we have made huge mistakes before, hopefully we will learn this time.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 23, 2018 at 10:07am

Beijing’s Trajectory in Science and Technology Shows India Is Far Behind in the Game

https://thewire.in/216576/china-watch-beijings-trajectory-science-t...

Given the profoundly anti-science attitude of our (Indian) government leaders, things are not likely to change in a hurry.


In contrast, US’s National Science Foundation and National Science Board have recently released their biennial science and engineering indicators which provide detailed figures on research and development (R&D), innovation and engineers. But its true message is in a different direction, “China has become,” concludes Robert J. Samuelson in a column, “or is in the verge of becoming – a scientific and technical superpower. This is not entirely unexpected given the size of the Chinese economy and its massive investments in R&D, even so, he says, “the actual numbers are breathtaking”.

China is the 2nd largest spender in R&D after the US, accounting for 21% of the world total which is $2 trillion. It has been going up 18% a year, as compared to 4% in the US. An OECD report says that China could overtake the US in R&D spending by 2020.
China has overtaken the US in terms of total number of science publications. Technical papers have increased dramatically, even if their impact, as judged by citation indices, may not be that high.
China has increased its technical workforce five times since 2000 to 1.65 million. It also has more B.Sc. degrees in science than any other country and the numbers are growing.
The US continues to produce more PhDs and attract more foreign students. But new international enrollment at US colleges was down for the first time in the decade in 2017. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and actions are scaring away students.
China has begun shifting from being an assembler of high-tech components, to a maker of super computers and aircraft and given the pattern of its investments in R&D and technology development, it is focusing on becoming the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum communications, quantum computing, biotechnology and electrical vehicles.
As of now, the US still continues to lead in terms of the number of patents and the revenue they generate.
China has also become a more attractive destination for foreign students and is now occupying the third slot after the US and the UK. This year, it is likely to gain the second spot.

China now has a serious programme to attract its own researchers back to the country. The thousand talents plan targets scientists below the age of 40 who have PhDs from prestigious foreign universities. The government offers 500,000 RMB ($80,000) lumpsum to everyone enrolled in the programme and promises research grants ranging from one to three million RMB ($150,000-$300,000). The funding for the programme is growing and in 2011, China awarded 143 scientists out of the 1,100 who applied, and in 2016, 590 from 3,048 applicants.

Individual Chinese universities are offering several times that sum. One specialist in advanced batteries from an MIT post-doctoral programme was offered a salary of $65,000, $900,000 as research grant and $250,000 to buy a house.

The report also flagged the serious deficiencies in US higher secondary education where in 2015, average maths scores for the 4th, 8th and 12th graders dropped for the first time. In the field of R&D and patents and revenue accruing from them, the US remains ahead, but the recent anti-immigration trends pose a serious long-term risk to the American supremacy because in essence, the US has been the best in harvesting talent from across the world.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 19, 2018 at 10:31am

Chinese language classes launched in Pakistan

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/19/c_136985786.htm

Pakistan-China Institute launched Chinese language classes here on Monday, in a move to provide opportunities to businessmen and other professionals who are interested in doing business in China.

Speaking at the event, Pakistani Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said he is happy about the commencement of the Chinese language classes by the important think tank in Pakistan, adding that the Pakistan-China friendship has been mutually beneficial for the two countries in strategic and economic terms.

Mushahid Hussain, head of the Pakisan-China Institute, said it is important to enhance people-to-people contact between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said language is the vehicle of basic understanding, and that the commencement of Chinese language classes will bring closer cooperation between Pakistan and China, adding that by overcoming the language barrier, both peoples will better understand each other's culture.

The Chinese language classes started eight years ago in Pakistan schools, and the newly launched one is the second phase of such classes for businessmen, academics, and intellectuals.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 19, 2018 at 10:36am

Braving security fears, Chinese seek 'Silk Road' riches in Pakistan

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-silkroad-pakistan-insight/...

Zhang Yang, a businessman from Chongqing in southwest China, is searching online forums for fellow stout-hearted entrepreneurs willing to cast aside security concerns and join him on a scouting mission to Pakistan.

Zhang, 48, is one of a growing number of Chinese pioneers sensing an opportunity across the Himalayas in Pakistan, where Beijing has pledged to spend $57 billion on infrastructure projects as part of its “Belt and Road” initiative.

Numbering in the thousands, this second wave of Chinese arrivals are following in the wake of workers on Belt and Road projects. Some are opening restaurants and language schools, while others are working out what products they could sell to a market of 208 million people, or what goods they could make cheaply in Pakistan to sell around the world.

“A lot of industries are already saturated in China,” said Zhang, who has worked in property, electrical appliances and household goods in China and says he wants to explore the potential for setting up factories or importing Chinese goods.

“Pakistan’s development is behind China, so it will hold better opportunities compared to home.”

But the new arrivals face dangers, creating a headache for Pakistani security officials.

Islamic State’s killing of two Chinese nationals in the restive Baluchistan province in June highlighted the risks posed by Islamist militants, who may see them as soft targets in their war with the state.

Beijing has also long fretted about hardened Pakistani Islamist fighters linking up with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Uigher militant group Beijing accuses of seeking to split off its western region of Xinjiang, Pakistani officials say.

Islamabad does not release immigration data but a source in the foreign ministry said about 71,000 Chinese nationals visited in 2016. A senior immigration official added 27,596 visa extensions were granted to Chinese that year, a 41 percent increase on 2015, suggesting more are staying in the country for longer.

For Pakistan, the stakes in keeping all those Chinese nationals safe are high.

Beijing’s infrastructure splurge has helped revive Pakistan’s sputtering economy, and deepening ties between the two nations have turned Pakistan into a key cog in China’s grand plan to build a modern-day “Silk Road” of land and sea trade routes linking Asia with Europe and Africa.

While the first phase of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as the Pakistan leg of this new Silk Road is called, concentrated on infrastructure projects, the second part will focus on setting up special economic zones and integrating Chinese firms into the local economy to help Pakistan develop its industries ranging from mining to agriculture.

China has also surged to become by far the biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for Pakistan, topping $1 billion in 2016/17, and is betting on its neighbor at a time when many Western companies are still put off by security concerns and corruption.

“Pakistan really needs foreign investment and we are not going to miss out on this because of some idiots with a gun,” said Miftah Ismail, a special adviser to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “We won’t let them mess with the Chinese.”

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