The construction of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor is not only a landmark project and a pilot project of the "the Belt and Road" construction, but also an important part of enriching the all-weather strategic partnership between China and Pakistan and building a closer China Pakistan community of common destiny in the new era. Over the past decade, the construction of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results, playing an important role in Pakistan's local economic growth and improving people's livelihood.
Rapid progress in infrastructure construction
Recently, the first China Pakistan cross-border land refrigerated container arrived in northwest China. This is the first time that Pakistani seafood containers arrive in Kashgar, Xinjiang, from Karachi along the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor by land transportation. It is reported that the China Pakistan cross-border refrigerated containers are transported through the Karakoram Highway, which is the only land transportation line between China and Pakistan, known as the "China Pakistan Friendship Highway", and also an important part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. This transportation took 8 days. Tayeb Khan, the head of Pakistan's Sada Quinn Freight Company, the carrier, said that in the past, it took about a month to transport by ship, and land transportation time was significantly shorter. Compared to air transportation, the price of container trucks was significantly lower, and the process was also more convenient.
"After the launch of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, China Pakistan economic and trade cooperation mainly revolves around the corridor." Hu Shisheng, director of the South Asia Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said in an interview with the China Trade News that the first phase of the construction of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results, and infrastructure construction has progressed rapidly, such as the Gwadar Port has partially opened, the Lahore Orange Line subway in Pakistan has been put into operation The Karot hydropower station has been fully put into commercial operation, involving various fields such as ports, energy, roads, electricity, etc., especially in China, which has solved the long-term energy shortage problem faced by Pakistan.
Pakistan Karot Hydropower Station, the first hydropower investment project of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor mainly invested and developed by China Three Gorges Corporation and surveyed and designed by Yangtze River Design Group, was put into commercial operation last year, generating 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually on average, which can meet the electricity demand of about 5 million local people. Karot Hydropower Station is located on the Jhelum River in Punjab Province, Pakistan, with a total installed capacity of 720000 kilowatts. It is a priority project for energy cooperation in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
"Chinese standards and Chinese manufacturing are the biggest feature of the whole project." Dong Xiaoning, an engineer of Changjiang Design Group, who was the first group to invest in the survey and experiment of Karot Hydropower Station, said that in order to cope with extreme flood peak, Karot Hydropower Station has designed a very wide Spillway, which can cope with the flood once in a thousand years, and there is also a subtle independent design that is not easy to find. In addition, in the process of project investment and construction, the Three Gorges Group has built more than 20 public welfare projects such as schools, hospitals and roads for local communities, implemented scholarship plans, carried out biodiversity conservation, and promoted the integration and development with surrounding communities. The project can provide more than 4500 direct or indirect employment opportunities for the local area each year.
Song Zhihui, director of the Pakistan Research Center of Sichuan University, said that according to incomplete statistics of the Pakistan Planning Commission, the early harvest project in the first phase of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has created about 38000 jobs, more than 75% of which are local jobs, including jobs created by energy projects