Project one of 51 planned by China with S.Asian country
Experts said on Thursday that bilateral negotiation is vital in finalizing the railway route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative.[Special coverage]
A report by domestic news portal suggested on Thursday that a railway route along the eastern part of Pakistan was the most feasible as the railway artery of the CPEC.
The eastern route, which would go from Karachi to Islamabad and further north to Kashi, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is "obviously more convenient and will cost less," the report on said.
The "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. As part of the plan, China aims to support partner countries along the routes in developing infrastructure.
China's National Railway Administration and the Railways Ministry of Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a joint feasibility study on Monday for upgrading the ML1 railway line and the establishment of Havelain Dry Port of Pakistan Railways.
The deal was one of the more than 51 MOUs Pakistan and China signed in Islamabad during the visit of Xi on Monday, said media reports.
A spokesperson with the National Railway Administration said there is currently no news concerning how the route will be finalized, when reached by the Global Times on Thursday.
China is going to invest more than $40 billion in Pakistan in different sectors including energy, the Karakoram Highway and many others, according to Pakistani media.
The route of the CPEC is a matter of great concern to people in the vast but underdeveloped Baluchistan Province, according to a report by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper in December.
Yin Xingmin, professor of the China Center for Economic Studies at Fudan University, believed that the final project should be the eastern route, which crosses the more populous regions of Pakistan, because this route will make financial returns easier.
"A railway generates more economic impact when it passes through more populous regions," Yin told the Global Times Thursday.
"A mechanism of bilateral negotiation should be worked out, balancing the interests of all the stakeholders, and this experience should be able to be copied to other countries and markets included in the 'Belt and Road' initiative, highlighting the exemplary role of a flagship project such as the CPEC," Ma Hong, a Shanghai-based independent analyst, told the Global Times Thursday.
"The construction of the upgrading project should be carried out by Pakistani companies, with the engineering assistance of Chinese companies, for reasons of safeguarding strategic secrets such as geography and demography," Yin said.
