Pakistan Minister Admits Failure to Capitalize on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Opportunities

There has been minimal advancement on CPEC since 2018.

A Pakistani minister has openly acknowledged that Islamabad failed to capitalize on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) before political controversies during Imran Khan's administration caused Chinese investors to depart. During a public event, Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that the South Asian nation's economy missed numerous opportunities for growth and "dropped the catch of the game changer CPEC."

Iqbal placed responsibility on former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for tarnishing the reputation of Chinese investments, which he claims led investors to withdraw from Pakistan despite Beijing's consistent support during challenging periods.

The $60 billion CPEC project—connecting China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan—was a cornerstone of Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It was designed to transform Pakistan's infrastructure and economy while extending China's global influence through Chinese-funded infrastructure developments.

"Pakistan's economy missed many opportunities to take off, and we also have dropped the catch of game changer CPEC," Iqbal stated during the opening session of the DataFest Conference. This represented an unusual instance of a senior cabinet minister admitting that CPEC objectives remained unfulfilled.

According to a report by Express Tribune, CPEC has shown little progress since 2018.

"Fourteen meetings of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC)—the highest decision-making body—have been held since both countries launched the strategic initiative. But official circles acknowledge that the productive work had been done till the seventh JCC, which met in the fall of 2017," the report indicated.

Pakistan has gained short-term benefits from CPEC, but long-term objectives have largely remained unachieved, according to the paper.

"The second phase of CPEC, aimed at shifting Chinese industries to Pakistan and increasing the country's exports through rapid industrialization, could not kick off," it stated.

The paper noted that even more than a decade after CPEC implementation began, both sides in the most recent JCC meeting recognized the necessity to implement support measures for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and improve facilities and services to attract enterprises to establish operations in these zones.

The Pakistani side assured China that it would continue enhancing the business environment, implement facilitation measures, and support and attract foreign enterprises, including Chinese companies, to invest and operate in the SEZs, the report added.