China Pakistan Economic Corridor Activates Regional Integration Potential

As a benchmark project of the "the Belt and Road", the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is committed to improving Pakistan's domestic infrastructure and thereby promoting the industrialization process of the whole country. After years of efforts, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor has opened up a new situation for trade between China and Pakistan. Large infrastructure such as Gwadar Port closely connects the markets of the two countries and other regions, becoming an important driving force for Pakistan's future economic growth and social development.
In 2013, the construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor was officially launched. It starts from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China and ends at Gwadar Port in Pakistan, with a total length of 3000 kilometers. The representative project of the corridor, Gwadar Port, also started construction work in the same year. Gwadar, meaning "Wind Gate", is a port city in the Baluchistan Province of southwestern Pakistan. From the air, the beautiful curves on the east and west sides of Gwadar are located like gemstones on the land of Pakistan, and Gwadar Port is built in the bay on its east side.
Ten years ago, due to being far from the economic hinterland, the construction of Gwadar region was severely backward, with extremely imperfect supporting facilities and a severe shortage of infrastructure such as water, electricity, and roads. In response, Chinese companies have carried out comprehensive renovation of Gwadar Port. Nowadays, Gwadar Port can accommodate two 50000 ton ships at the same time, effectively handling container, bulk cargo, ro/ro cargo, liquefied petroleum gas, and other businesses, with full operational capabilities. Compared to other ports in Pakistan, Gwadar Port has a unique advantage of fast loading and unloading services, orderly transportation organization, and no demurrage fees.
Originally just a small port waiting to be renovated, it has now become a multifunctional port capable of docking large cargo ships, providing warehousing, logistics, and transportation services. The significant changes in Gwadar Port not only stimulate new vitality, but also drive the coordinated development of Gwadar Free Zone. At the same time as the port development, the supporting construction of the port area is also smoothly advancing. In October 2021, the important livelihood project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Gwadar Vocational and Technical School, was completed; In June 2022, the East Bay Expressway connecting Gwadar Port with the outside world will be opened to traffic; The orderly construction of projects such as the aid to Gwadar New International Airport and the China Pakistan Friendship Hospital in Gwadar... The development of Gwadar Port not only strongly promotes the development of Pakistan's domestic economy, but also effectively improves the living standards of the local people.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor, represented by Gwadar Port, provides a huge platform for China and Pakistan to promote bilateral and regional trade, and has become a successful example of large-scale infrastructure projects in the corridor. Except for Gwadar Port, the largest transportation infrastructure project in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor - the Pakistan PKM Expressway (Peshawar Karachi Expressway) project, the Sukkur Multan section, has been playing an indispensable role as a major north-south transportation hub in central Pakistan since its official transfer of vehicles in 2020.

These infrastructure guarantees the continuous expansion of cooperation between China and Pakistan, from agriculture to science and technology, and the exchange and cooperation between the two sides continue to deepen. In addition, in the field of social and people's livelihood, the two countries have always adhered to sincere mutual assistance. In recent years, the continuous enrichment of the connotation of corridor cooperation has relied on the solid foundation laid by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor in the previous stage. As Hassan Daud, director of the "the Belt and Road" and Regional Research Center for Global Governance of the Pakistan Institute for Sustainable Development Policy, said, in the past 10 years, Pakistan's energy supply, transportation infrastructure, etc. have been greatly improved, which not only solves the livelihood problems, but also creates conditions for the national economy, especially industrial development.
Since the beginning of this year, China and Pakistan have continued to deepen cooperation in improving infrastructure construction along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. In addition to the Gwadar Port and its supporting projects, the two countries are constantly exchanging views on the follow-up progress of the Lahore "Orange Line", the No.1 Railway Main Line (ML1), and the Karakoram Highway Phase II (Tacot Rekot Section) (N35) renovation project, committed to truly building the infrastructure system of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor into a tool for Pakistan to achieve smooth trade. In the future, the continuous upgrading of infrastructure will safeguard the development of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor in specific fields such as energy and industry. The construction of industrial parks such as the Lashakai Special Economic Zone will also rapidly develop with the guarantee of corridor infrastructure, bringing about the takeoff of Pakistan's industrialization process.
By improving infrastructure, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor has brought the distance between the two countries closer and played an important role in the connectivity of the entire region. We believe that through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, both China and Pakistan, as well as countries in the region, can continuously deepen trade exchanges and bring true peace and prosperity to the entire region. (Shi Puhao, journalist of Economic Daily in Islamabad)