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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a strategic vision proposed by China, that focused on connectivity and economic support on a transcontinental scale. The range of activities that will be part of Belt and Road initiative is very wide, including infrastructure, policy coordination, financial and people to people exchange. Transportation infrastructure contributes to trade and economic integration, which further leads towards sustainable development. Moreover, excellent infrastructure provides a suitable environment for foreign investors (Ramachandran,2011). In this initiative, Chinese government aims to connect China with its OBOR partners through the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), Maritime Silk Road (MSR), and Digital Silk Road (DSR) (Nurmyrat,2017). The importance of One Belt One Road (OBOR) is increasing day by day, and aaccording to official information, by January 2021, 133 to 140 countries had signed cooperation agreements for the OBOR Initiative since 2013 (Ghanem, Li,2021). For countries and organizations to join the OBOR, China and the respective country or organization sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).More recently, China now imports more goods from countries that have signed up to the OBOR Initiative than it exports (Islam,2009).Chinese government embarked on a set of several reforms in development strategy of OBOR for strengthen transport infrastructure on the westward land route through Central Asia to Europe; and the Southern maritime routes through Southeast Asia, on to South Asia, Africa and Europe, and targeted ports and railway networks in Southeast Europe (Tiezzi,2014).
BRI is subdivided into five major routes which will comprise six economic corridors, and every corridor is important whether through sea or over land (Islam,2009). The CPEC is an extension of One Belt One Road Initiative, and it is more important because of strategic location. CPEC aims to improve regional connectivity between China and its One Belt One Road partners. It will connect Pakistan’s Gwader port with Kashgar in western China, and will provide an alternative and important trading route that is short, safe and cost-effective to develop the trading cooperation by enhancing speed, reduced travel time, transport cost, and distance while decreasing the burden on roads. This corridor will not only benefit Pakistan and China, but also have a positive spell over effect on countries of One Belt One Road by strengthening the geographical connectivity.
CPEC project will provide an alternative route for China to trade with the Western countries, Africa and most importantly, oil imports from the Middle East would remain unimpeded. Through this economic corridor development, OBOR promises huge potential benefits to the region at large (MOFCOM,2020) and (Swaine,2015). Under CPEC, more than US$46 billion will be invested in Pakistan's power, infrastructure, agriculture, and industrial sectors. The most important benefit for China under CPEC would be the decrease of China trade way from the existing sea route of 12,000 kilometres to 2,000 kilometers (Swaine,2015). The oil consignments from Gulf nations would be transported to China via Pakistan, while non-oil imports could be transported to the world by Gwadar as a transport route. There are also some CPEC benefits like China regional disputes, pirate incidences, and geopolitics that make the Strait of Malacca as an attentive weakness for China and may stop economic development in case of any unanticipated events. (Irshad,2015).