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Pakistan signed new deals with China on Saturday worth nearly 500 million US dollars ahead of the Belt and Road Forum(BRF) that opens on Sunday in Beijing, the Pakistani government said.
The memorandums of understanding add to 57 billion US dollars already pledged for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of rail, road and energy infrastructure that is part of the wider China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
A container is loaded on to the Cosco Wellington, the first container ship to depart after the inauguration of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor port in Gwadar, Pakistan on November 13, 2016. /VCG Photo
The deals came as Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday.
Pakistan has been a flagship country and one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Belt and Road Initiative, in part because many projects are for power plants to alleviate the country's decade-long energy-shortage crisis that sees frequent blackouts.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a core component of Xi‘s visionary initiative of the Belt and Road, said Sharif during his meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of People in Beijing on Saturday.
PROJECTS
Among the 3.4 billion yuan (493 million US dollars) in deals Sharif's office said were signed on Saturday were:
-Two cooperation agreements worth 2.3 billion yuan (333 million US dollars) for an airport in the southwestern town of Gwadar, site of a deep-water port that is to provide an outlet to the Arabian Sea from the far northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region .
-Establishment of the Havelian Dry Port in Pakistan.
-Agreement on economic and technical cooperation (160 million US dollars) for the East Bay Expressway linking Gwadar to Pakistan's existing highway system.
Between 2014 and 2016, China‘s businesses signed projects worth 304.9 billion US dollars in countries along the Belt and Road routes, according to Qian Keming, China's Vice Commerce Minister.
Some countries may be wary of the debt burden that the Chinese financing could create.
Pakistan, however, has expressed an optimistic view, with the government's chief economist telling Reuters this week that the repayments will peak at around 5 billion US dollars in 2022, but will be more than offset by transit fees charged on the new transport corridor.
(REUTERS)
