China-Pakistan superhighway China’s President Xi Jinping has arrived in Pakistan, where he is expected to announce a $46bn investment package centred around the construction of the CPEC China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a 3,000km network of roads, railway and pipelines running from Gwadar in Pakistan to China’s western Xinjiang region, giving China direct access to the Indian Ocean. The package also includes some $15.5bn worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects that are due to come online by 2017, adding 10 .4k MW Pakistan’s national grid.
The scale of China’s investment in Pakistan far outstrips that of the US and marks a major advance in China’s plans to boost its economic influence in Central and South Asia. “Pakistan is now of pivotal importance,” the chairman of Pakistan’s Defence Committee Mushahid Hussain Sayed told Reuters. “This has to succeed and be seen to succeed.” A $44m optical fibre cable between the two countries is also due to be built.
President Jinping set to put China-Pakistan superhighway in motion
China’s President Xi Jinping
Source: bbc