The truth is that all stakeholders are unanimous in their opinion that the China-Pakistan Economic corridor (CPECC) is the best thing to happen in decades for the economic good of Pakistan, taking Pakistan-China relations to new heights. All provincial governments, all political parties of Pakistan and the private and public business sectors of Pakistan want the CPEC to happen - the commitment, time and again, expressed by all at all forums. Unlike Kalabagh Dam, CPEC enjoys countrywide consensus.
It is also a fact that there are issues which keep on surfacing since the inception of CPEC regarding the equitable sharing of the benefits of the corridor by all the provinces. The smaller provinces, notably KPK and Balochistan, are apprehensive that their interests are being compromised and usurped jointly by the federal government and Punjab. Their concern is that the whole of the CPEC is shrouded in mystery and lacks transparency on issues such as lack of clarity on the corridor route alignment, the equitable sharing of benefits like establishment of Business Hubs and Industrial parks along the corridor, the equitable sharing of the $46 billions pledged by China to support the energy and infra-structure sector of Pakistan, lack of their say on this national project and similar concerns.
On a country-level, there are questions if Pakistan is getting its due benefits out of the economic corridor and if the strategic interests of Pakistan are well balanced with the strategic interests of China. The fact remains that access to warm waters of the Gulf has always been the dream of the defunct Soviet Union and China. The Soviet Union messed up its reach to these waters by the invasion of Afghanistan which met global resistance and Russia had to ultimately withdraw. China played it cool and waited for the right time and circumstances to fulfil its dream.
The truth is that China's primary interest in the corridor is the Gwadar port and its connectivity with China. China wants this to happen on fast track. As a trade-off, Pakistan is offered by China soft loans worth $46 billion dedicated to energy and infrastructure projects and largely in favour of Chinese contractors. China is interested to adapt the route which is the shortest and fastest to build. As such the present route alignment, which is termed as Phase-I, is mostly the upgrade of the existing connectivity for which there is no need to undergo the cumbersome and time consuming land acquisition and painful preparatory works through one of the world's most difficult terrains. This is the gist of the corridor - period.
The other benefits like establishment of industrial zones and business hubs along the corridor are a long-term ambition with no clarity nor a defined roadmap. Considering that the existing industrial zones in Pakistan are struggling for survival the feasibility of new ones is not understandable. Pakistan's ranking has declined to 138th out of 189 economies in Doing Business Index 2016 as announced by the World Bank Group. Since the last many years its is on constant decline and may slide down to the lowest. Pakistan has to fix this before it aims for setting up new industrial zones, but, with no takers. And this is not an easy fix.
The present political uncertainty and a lack of trust in the CPEC dynamics is primarily on account of government planners' inability to roll out the corridor plans in totality and honesty. One can judge the credential gap and lack of information-sharing from the fact that the corridor route map presented last Sunday by the organisers at an All-Party Conference (APC) was disputed and challenged by the Federal Minister of Planning as incorrect. Both had route maps of their own.
What is stored in CPEC sprouts out in piecemeals like the ad hoc announcement that the Metro Orange Line in Lahore and the coal mining and power plants at Thar are ready to kick off under the CPEC. This gives birth to frustration among other provinces, specially the smaller ones. The government could have sensibly avoided this unsavoury with a bit of categorical and transparent resource allocations for all provinces in one go and spelled out the changes in route alignment, if any. Transparency has always been a major flaw in the present style of state governance.
The resolution passed last Sunday at the APC largely comprise doable demands, which are largely basics and legitimate. The government will do good in the national interest to positively and honestly address the 'doable' and move on the economic corridor with consensus.
Pakistan must rather concentrate on securing its interests in the CPEC by carving out a larger share for itself rather then blowing the trumpet of $46 billion project loan on softer terms. The loan is largely dedicated to Chinese contractors engaged on the projects where transparency of competitive biding, price and quality effectiveness is compromised. The government must professionally engage itself to arrest slippages in this regard.
The government must extensively get engaged the private sector in the CPEC who are better equipped to maximise the benefits. The government must ensure maximised local value-addition to promote local industry, manpower, contractors and technology transfer. Pakistan is known for loose management and expenditure controls. The CPEC should be a model of good governance, transparency and good management practices. This is what the Pakistan government should be looking at.
(The writer is Chairman Avant Ventures and former President OICCI & ABB Pakistan)