Islamabad :
Reacting to criticism of the Pak-China Economic Corridor (C-PEC) in a US agency report, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Omar said that Pakistan does not face any problem of ‘Chinese loans’ with Chinese financing.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he said that Pakistan has a problem of debt consolidation but the reason is not China but Pakistan’s own problems due to which we face difficulties in debt consolidation.
He was responding to a report by the US International Development Research Lab Aid Data, which criticized C-Pec.
Reiterating the objections raised in the report, Asad Umar said that it raised issues of lack of transparency regarding C-Pec, secret loans for Pakistan, expensive loans, dangerous increase in Pakistan’s debt due to C-Pec.
He said that according to the report, information related to Pak-China Economic Corridor (C-PAC) projects was not transparent and this information had been repeated more than once.
In parliament, he said, the Senate and the National Assembly’s Standing Committees on Planning, in addition to the C-Pec , have a joint committee to ask questions about the C-Pec, meaning it has parliamentary oversight.
Asad Omar said that the most talked about projects are energy projects, what is the tariff, what is the cost, what is the commercial financing structure, all the information is available on the website of NEPRA from where Can be done.
“We are part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program. When the program started, there was a lot of talk about C-Pec information,” he said. Provided, after which you may not have heard anything about C-Pec loans in the IMF negotiations.
The Federal Minister further said that there was talk of secret loans with reference to C-Pec which we do not know which loans we are talking about. When we tried to make up our minds, we understood that They call it a secret loan.
He said that no matter how many IPPs are installed in Pakistan, no matter which country they are invested in, everyone gets this structure, on the basis of which these projects are implemented, over-guarantees are given and something new is invented in it. It did not happen and it is not a secret.
Asad Omar said that this is not just a practice of energy projects but also other projects in which the government believes that instead of putting its money first, there is a sovereign guarantee behind it to get the private sector to work. She manages to invest in the project without using her own money.
He said that it was not unusual that no special guarantees were given to C-Pec which were not given to other energy projects.
The Federal Minister said that the third objection was that C-Pack loans are very expensive. There are two things in this. One is the private sector energy projects for which the loans were taken. The rest of the structure was built.
He said that Chinese financing is at a lower interest rate for energy projects than other lenders other than China, such as the World Bank, IFC, ADB, DEG, etc., but much higher. There is no difference.
The Federal Minister said that China has also given several loans in the form of grants. If we look at the total government-to-government loans, its average is less than 2% to 1.98%.
Asad Umar said that one of the objections was that due to Chinese loans, Pakistan’s debts have reached dangerous levels, but if Pakistan’s internal and external debts are combined, 10 per cent of the debts belong to China while the rest are domestic or foreign. There are loans.
Elaborating further, he said that if we look only at external debt, 26 per cent of it is China’s debt, then the 74 per cent that we have borrowed from other international institutions will not be a threat to Pakistan, but it has been 26 per cent. Absolutely absurd argument.
Asad Umar said that C-Pec’s energy projects had good conditions or bad ones, they were for the whole world, everyone was offered but only Chinese investors came to implement projects on these conditions or they worked with Pakistan’s private sector. If they had planned together, it would not have been a policy specifically for China.
He urged the media to ask questions to those who listen to it from outside, but it is neither good journalism nor service to Pakistan to carry out the same statement without thinking and verifying it.
Commenting on the progress made on the C-Pec projects, he said that the government has already shown with facts and figures that more work has been done under the present administration than before while Chinese circles No criticism was made.
Responding to a question about the lack of employment opportunities created by the C-Pec projects, Asad Omar explained that the first phase of infrastructure and capital projects was not aimed at job creation.
He said the jobs that are expected will be created by new projects such as industrialization, industrial investment, manufacturing and agricultural projects.
Asad Umar said that both Pakistan and China would welcome the participation of other countries in the C-Pec
It would be a great idea to build the Laqai corridor and Pakistan would fully support it.
The Federal Minister urged the international community to maintain financial ties with Afghanistan and be part of its development process.
