Chinese companies not happy with pace of work on CPEC projects, Pakistani parliamentary Committee told

Islamabad: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Khalid Mansoor has told a parliamentary body that several Chinese companies were not happy with the pace of work on the CPEC projects.

In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Mansoor said that the Chinese were unhappy with the National Highway Authority, the progress of work in Gwadar and the repayment of loans – previously invested by the Chinese companies.

Committee Chairman Saleem Mandviwala took up the issue saying Chinese officials had informed him that “nothing has happened to CPEC” in the last three years. Khalid Mansoor agreed with the chairman of the committee and admitted Chinese were unhappy on several matters, said an official statement. The Chairman of the committee said that he would give a list of all the Chinese companies which were making complaints and he would call these Chinese companies in the next meeting. The Senate committee itself would visit Thar and Gwadar to review the plans, he added.

“The Chinese are not happy with the current progress of CPEC projects as they have approached me to help remove the bottlenecks,” Senator Saleem Mandviwala said.

The Chair asked Special Assistant to Prime Minister on CPEC Affairs Khalid Mansoor to take the responsibility of early completion of under construction projects and removing all bottlenecks in way of approval of the under consideration mega projects including up-gradation of ML-1 railway project and the hydro power projects.

“My number one priority is to regain the Chinese confidence,” Khalid Mansoor said adding that in this regard he had personally met with representatives of 40 out of 135 Chinese companies working in Pakistan.

“I will take responsibility of implementation of the projects and I will go myself to all the concerned ministries and divisions to implement the CPEC projects,” he stated. On to the overall CPEC progress, Khalid Mansoor informed that so far 21 projects worth $15.2 billion had been completed while 21 projects worth of $9.3 billion were under implementation. Similarly 36 projects of $28 billion were under consideration. Mandwiwala deplored the government departments were very slow and they needed to be pushed to expedite the implementation process.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar responding to the complaints of Senator Danish Kumar about ignoring Balochistan under CPEC, clarified that in the first phase of CPEC, two third projects were related to power which had minimum impact on the local area. He claimed a lot of development work was going on in the province particularly in Gwadar such as desalination plants, technical training institutes, Eastbay Expressway etc.

Apart from the projects under CPEC, a special historical package of Rs 560 billion had also been announced for the development of least developed Southern Balochistan districts under which IT parks, industrial zones, power plants, dams, and road projects would be developed, he maintained. Further, he said: “We are working on four priority Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC, one of which was being constructed in Gwadar.”

The one named South Zone has been completed at an area of 60 acres while the other gigantic 2500 acres North Zone is under construction in the city, he explained.

He informed that a virgin 100,000 acres land was lying vacant near Mirani Dam which would be utilized for agriculture purposes in which some Chinese investors were interested to develop an agriculture zone.

Senator Danish Kumar remarked the ground realities said there was no development in the area and the residents of Gwadar were not enjoying basic facilities including water and electricity. On this, Asad Umar proposed the committee to arrange a visit to the Southern Balochistan to see the under progress development.

Senator Muhammad Tahir Bazinjo proposed that instead of investing heavily on other projects like airport, the investment should be poured in the drinking water projects on priority. He stressed the need to turn N-25 to motorway as it had become a bloody road and accidents on that road had become a routine matter.

Asad Umar mentioned that the construction of Karachi-Chaman N-25 road project had already been approved. The Khuzdar-Kuchlak section of the N-25 would be funded through PSDP while the rest portion would be constructed through Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis.

Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen said the private sector partnership projects were not implementable. Asad Umar said the present government was fully committed to complete all the projects under BOT basis on priority and the tariff for road taxes would be determined by the government not by the private sector.

About the electricity problem in Gwadar, the minister opined that the biggest problem was that there was not transmission line connected with the national grid. “Balochistan government had requested the federal government in this regard and we have given approval for the project for connecting Gwadar with the national grid and the project would be completed by March 2022,” he added.

He pledged that the electricity from Iran to Gwadar would also be streamlined and the 300MW coal power plant in the Gwadar city was already under construction. So the electricity problem in the city would be resolved soon.

PM’s aide on CPEC Khalid Mansoor said two dams in the vicinity of Gwadar including Shadikor dam were filled to their capacity and the connectivity of these dams to the Gwadar city would also be completed in three months. “The water supply is being made through a 2 inch pipeline which is too narrow to fulfill the need. So a 12 inch water pipeline has been approved and was being installed. Furthermore the water desalination plants with 1.2 million and 0.5 million each capacity per day are also under construction,” he elaborated.

He further said that in order to resolve the electricity problems, the government was importing solar panels that would be provided to every household in Gwadar city. “The project is being accomplished on most priority basis,” he contended. With respect to security issue, the SAPM informed that after the recent security attacks, he briefed the Chinese authorities in detail and after the briefing, the Chinese had expressed satisfaction over the security situation.

The meeting was apprised that under the CPEC socio-economic development project, the Chinese government had announced a grant of US $1 billion but unfortunately due to lukewarm response of the provinces and the departments, only US $ 50 million out of US $ 1 billion could be utilized so far.

About the under consideration power plants, Saleem Mandviwala said until the outstanding dues of US $1.2 billion were not paid to the Chinese power producers, they would not go ahead to sign more power plants. The meeting was informed that a competitive bidding would have to be arranged for the ML-1 railway project.

The chair indicated that as per Chinese estimate, the project’s worth is over US $9 billion however according to Pakistan Railways, the project could be completed at a cost of US $ 6.8 billion.