Chinese investment decreased by 10 pc in last two years
Federal Minister for Board of Investment and Special Initiatives Chaudhry Salik Hussain on Thursday informed Senate that the government has revived work on China Pakistan Economic Corridor project with full speed.
Replying queries during Questions Hour session in the Senate, he said a long-term plan is being considered into an implementation matrix on CPEC, adding that joint working groups are being convened to pave the way for 11th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting in this regard. He said that the Chinese investment has decreased by 10 percent in last two years (FY2020- FY2021).
In written reply, the minister said that the decrease in Chinese investments was due to various reasons including Covid-19. He said that Covid-19 outbreak caused a sharp decline in global economic activity.
“As majority of Chinese investments fall under the CPEC ambit, the economic disruptions and social restrictions caused by Covid-19 also impacted the pace of CPEC, thus impacting the overall Net FDI” he added.
The minister said that the decrease in Chinese investment in the last two years is partly due to the conclusion of CPEC Phase-1 which has overall impacted the outlay of Chinese investments in Pakistan. The minister said that unfortunately during previous government’s tenure CPEC was not assigned priority in either allocation of resources or implementation.
