China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has picked up pace once again as China has invested more than $11 Billion in Pakistan in 2020 alone. This is the second biggest amount of Chinese investment in a single year after 2015 which witnessed a total investment of over $12 billion.
The progress over the CPEC appeared to have stalled between 2017 and 2019 due to the relatively low amount of Chinese investment. However, CPEC has been reinvigorated since the appointment of Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa as the Chairman of the CPEC Authority (CPECA) in November last year.
Last month, Pakistan and China signed an agreement to build 2 hydro power plants worth $3.9 Billion in Azad Kashmir amid tensions with India. Another deal worth $7.2 billion to revamp the outdated railway infrastructure from the colonial era was also agreed last month.
Bajwa’s commendable performance as the Chairman CPECA earned him another role as Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed him as the Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting in April.
According to a World Bank estimate, energy plants, railways, roads, ports, and other projects worth $575 billion have either been developed or are in the works all around the world since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.
