The project also foresees the creation of road, rail and pipeline links that will cut several thousand kilometres off the route to transport oil from the Middle East to China, while bypassing mutual rival India.
The upgrade stretches 3,000 kilometres from the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabia Sea to China’s western city of Kashgar.
Pakistan transferred control of the port to a Chinese public company in 2013. Iqbal said $11 billion has been set aside for the purpose.
In Monday’s edition of Pakistani daily The News, Xi said the two countries needed to align their development, trade and economic strategies more closely.
And in keeping with the flowery rhetoric that usually accompanies China-Pakistan exchanges, Xi wrote that he felt like he was “going to visit the home of my own brother” on his two-day visit.
– Onus on Islamabad –
The projected investments, $28 billion of which are ready to sign during Xi’s visit, dwarf a US assistance package to Pakistan of $5 billion that was begun in 2010, but has not made as great an impact as hoped.
Referring to the US aid, signed under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act (KLB), Iqbal said: “KLB was $1.5 billion per year, out of which only $600-700 million went to government. Most of it went to non-government sectors and the bulk went to American companies.
“That is a problem with assistance that comes through the aid mode.”
