China Pakistan Economic Corridor: UK wants share of the cake

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor issue should worry India after UK's endorsement: Global Times

The UK government is eyeing to be a “key partner” of the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and is working on securing British business interests in the project to boost its trade ties post-Brexit. UK international trade minister Greg Hands held a roundtable with leading UK businesses, policy experts and senior representatives of the Chinese and Pakistani governments earlier this week.

“The UK is poised to be a key partner of the CPEC,” said an official statement issued here yesterday. The statement said the UK will be hosting a key conference on CPEC in Islamabad in May. “Britain is a country of free-trade influence and can be an important partner for China and Pakistan in the delivery of huge infrastructure projects that are being planned between the two countries,” Hands said.

“As part of an outward looking Global Britain, we have a clear ambition to increase trade with both China and Pakistan and UK businesses are well placed to capitalise on the new opportunities the region,” he noted.

According to the UK’s Department of International Trade, China is supporting USD 51 billion of infrastructure development in Pakistan as part of the CPEC to develop key infrastructure projects like roads, railways and power stations which will modernise Pakistan’s economy and boost access to trade. It is part of China’s broader ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ to replicate the ancient Silk Road trade routes with modern trading relationships and investments across Asia, the Middle East and into Europe.

India has protested over the CPEC project as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. China defends the project, saying it is a development oriented project aimed at improving lives of the local people and it makes no difference to its stand on the Kashmir issue.

The meeting hosted by Hands in London on Monday included the Chinese Ambassador, Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and British High Commissioner to Pakistan.

Experts from CityUK, the Royal United Services Institute and the China Britain Business Council as well as representatives from HSBC, Deloitte and Standard Chartered discussed how they and other British firms can support the delivery of CPEC. A joint statement in 2015 between the UK and Chinese governments committed both countries to support each other’s commercial co-operation in new markets.

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China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is currently under construction throughout Pakistan (File)

With the UK endorsing the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, India should shed its concerns over it and sign-up for the Silk Road project, state media here said today.

“The UK is poised to be a key partner of CPEC” and will host a conference in Islamabad in May, an article in the state-run Global Times said. “The news offers a positive signal that the CPEC has received an increasing amount of attention from developed economies,” it said.

The UK’s international trade minister Greg Hands held a roundtable with leading UK businesses, policy experts and senior representatives of the Chinese and Pakistani governments earlier this week. “The UK is poised to be a key partner of the CPEC,” an official British government statement said in an endorsement of the project even though it goes through the Gilgit and Baltistan area of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over which India has protested.

“New Delhi is yet to sign up for the Belt & Road (Silk Road) initiative and has claimed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) violates its sovereignty because it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” the Global Times article said. “China’s enormous investment in the CPEC has become an inharmonious factor in Sino-Indian ties. However, it would be unwise to think that increasing investment in the CPEC means a lack of respect for India’s sovereignty,” it said.

The article said that such ideas could lead to unnecessary opposition between India and the West as developed countries show an increased interest in the CPEC and China’s Belt and Road (B&R) initiative. “The CPEC is simply an economic project. Beijing has no intention to use to the B&R initiative to recognise any geopolitical spheres of influence. Hopefully China’s open mind towards cooperation on the B&R initiative can help dispel misgivings held by India and some other countries,” it said. There is great potential for developed economies, like the UK, to join CPEC and other projects in B&R initiative, it said.

China is likely to welcome enterprises from the UK and other developed nations to participate in construction of the CPEC which has long been seen a flagship project in the B&R initiative, the article said. The B&R initiative not only provides a platform for China and countries along the route to enhance cooperation, but also adheres to the principle of openness and inclusiveness in global economic development, it said.

Currently, China is encouraging wider participation from developed economies in the initiative, it said. In March, New Zealand signed a cooperation agreement with China on the B&R initiative, a first for Western developed countries. A B&R initiative summit, to be held in Beijing in May, will also provide an opportunity to enhance cooperation between China and developed countries, the article said.

The steady development of the CPEC has made Pakistan more attractive to foreign investment, it claimed.Some Western developed countries, as the traditional foreign trade partners of many emerging economies along the B&R initiative, have a clear intent to increase trade with those countries, Pakistan included, it said.

Additionally, Pakistan’s nuclear power sector and other high-tech industries are also likely to gain more opportunities if developed economies participate in the construction of the CPEC, the article said.

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