Khusro Bakhtiar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms has said that around 8 billion dollars investment is expected in the proposed Gwadar oil city project and the petrochemical chain to be developed under CPEC.
Briefing Senate Special Committee on CPEC he said that huge investment is coming to Pakistan’s oil sector being very lucrative.
He said that the government was exploring different avenues for investment in the ML-1 project and inviting the third party including Japan or Germany to invest in Karachi to Peshawar railway track.
The Senate Special Committee on CPEC was informed that besides Saudi Arabia, UAE and Korea has also shown interest in investing in the oil city in Gwadar. The government is currently negotiating with Saudi state oil company ARAMCO to set up an oil refinery in Gwadar, the minister revealed.
“Both UAE and Korea want to set up oil refineries in the port city,” he said. The minister further informed the committee that free trade agreement with China would be finalized/renegotiated during 2019.
Members of the committee raised questions over including the third party in CPEC. Khusro Bakhtiar has said that CPEC was a strategic bilateral legal framework agreement between Pakistan and China and no third country could become the partner in the framework. However, he said that any investment in the CPEC projects by any third country would be done after prior approval of the two countries. The committee also showed concern over the issues of the missing portion of CPEC Western Route and directed the federal government to complete the portion from Dera Ismail Khan to Zob, from Zob to Quetta and from Quetta to Sohrab on a priority basis. Senator Usman Kakar said that work on the project was pending for the long and previous government had shown least interest in the project.
The planning minister said that the Western Route was an integral part of CPEC and the government is giving high priority to the western route.
The committee was informed that the D.I. Khan-Zhob part of Western Route was being constructed under CPEC and it was on the agenda of JCC on CPEC to be held in Beijing this month. The minister assured the committee that remaining parts of the route which were not under CPEC will be included in the PSDP and work on these projects will be initiated very soon.
The minister said that the present government has established new joint working groups on CPEC in agriculture and socio-economic sectors to increase cooperation in these sectors. The minister said that these two sectors would be on the agenda of the upcoming JCC meeting.
Gawadar port is going to be the hub of trade in the region very soon and those who are investing right now are expected to reap huge returns in the future.
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