CPEC (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – IR)

Context: China and Pakistan recently signed significant agreements regarding motorways and highways during the caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan’s four-day visit to Beijing, according to a media report.

• The agreements would be signed under the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program, a recently established initiative aimed at enhancing economic cooperation between the two nations.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

• About: The CPEC is a bilateral project between Pakistan and China. 
• Objective: To enhance connectivity across Pakistan with a network of highways, railways, and pipelines accompanied by other infrastructure development projects.
• Under the CPEC Plan: China will invest in industrial power stations, roads, and railways from Kashgar in Xinjiang (China) to Gwadar port (Pakistan) in the 3000 km long belt.
• Financed by: Heavily-subsidised Chinese loans, disbursed to the Pakistan Government by Chinese banking giants such as China Development Bank, Exim Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
• CPEC is a component of the OBOR (One Belt One Road) initiative of China.

OBOR

• OBOR or Belt and Road (BRI) is the new Silk Road initiative, both by land and sea, announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.
• It’s themost ambitious infrastructure and connectivity projectin history, aiming to connect China with Europe by land and rail, and to Africa and Asia by sea.