Beijing coy on China-Pak Economic Corridor budget
BEIJING: The Chinese government has declined to reveal the budget for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) economic corridor, saying that the finance model for it is market driven.
The budget for the multi-billion dollar CPEC, a cluster of projects that would connect Xinjiang in China’s west to the Gwadar port in Balochistan, has been variously put between $46 billion and, more recently, at $51 billion.
The CPEC is a flagship project under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to connect China with Asia and Europe by land and over sea through infrastructure projects. India hasn’t signed up for BRI because CPEC passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). According to diplomats, India endorsing the BRI would mean giving up its claims on PoK.
Privately, Chinese experts say the CPEC budget numbers have been circulated by Pakistani officials and not by China. The ministry of foreign affairs told HT that, in fact, that there is no “specific budget” for the project.
“There is no specific budget for the construction of the CPEC. Instead, it follows international practices, adopting a market driven model, encouraging enterprises to play an essential role to move it forward. It (the project) is based on scientific evaluation and it is being implemented under the principle ‘operating when mature,’” the ministry told HT in a written response.
It didn’t clarify whether the projected budget would be more than the numbers that are circulating. It also failed to answer as to how many CPEC projects would be inside PoK.