The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project of regional connectivity and economic partnership, derived from China’s transnational initiative of One Belt One Road (OBOR). It promises shared prosperity through greater infrastructural interconnection and trade linkages between Pakistan and China and beyond through a 3218 km stretch of network comprising of roads, rail, fiber optic, energy pipelines, industrial clusters and Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It also involves projects for agricultural development and poverty alleviation, tourism cooperation and people-to-people communication, financial cooperation and human resource development. Cumulatively, China will invest more than US $ 46 billion in these projects.
CPEC aims to transform Pakistan into a geo-economic hub as it will not only connect Kashgar region in China with Gwadar region in Pakistan but will also augment the inter-regional trade potential by providing linkages between China, Central Asia, South Asia, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Middle East. Billions of people inhabiting these parts of the world will benefit from the socio-economic development engendered by CPEC.