CPEC: The Next Big Thing in the Neighbourhood?
Image Courtesy: Pakistan Today (Published in The Assam Tribune, July 29, 2016) At a time when the construction of economic corridors has come up as an effective means to strengthen regional cooperation and promote development, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been making headlines of late in the South Asian context. After the considerable success of such corridors in the neighbourhood – the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) – CPEC is a significant attempt to accelerate economic growth in South Asia by linking remote and less developed places. The idea is to connect Kashgar in China’s Xingjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the Gwadar port in Southwest Pakistan through a network of expressways, rail networks and pipelines. The initial proposal for a CPEC was floated in May 2013 during Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Pakistan. Pakistan welcomed the proposal with great enthusiasm and the two sides signed a MoU to cooperate on a ‘long-term’ plan. During the...