China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has potential to become a gateway to Central Asia and to provide the region with the much needed economic uplift.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor represents connectivity for industrialization, trade promotion, energy generation, and much more. Its main purpose is to create a land link between western China and Pakistan by providing access to the southern port of Gwadar in Balochistan province. This port was especially designed to cater to the needs of China and Pakistan, but it also provides immense opportunities for the Central Asian Republics to expand trade with China and Pakistan, as well as India and the countries of West Asia.
In this regard, the CPEC could serve as a strategic opportunity for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to transport their goods and market them more competitively in the regional and global markets. Pakistan also desires access to the rich energy resources of Central Asia to meet its energy needs, as well as transport goods to Central Asia.
Thus, the CPEC has great potential to become a gateway to Central Asia and to provide the region with a much needed economic uplift. Connecting Central Asian countries with the CPEC would cultivate new markets with significant growth potential in the region and foster goodwill with neighboring countries.
In this context, several Central Asian countries have welcomed the implementation of the CPEC by emphasizing the role of the corridor in promoting progress and prosperity. For instance, Turkmenistan has been allowed to use the crown jewel of the CPEC, the newly modernized Gwadar deep-sea port in Pakistan, which gives Turkmenistan access to the Indian Ocean. Tajikistan is also eying access to Gwadar port, as it would be a junction to connect the landlocked Central Asian state with the rest of the world. Uzbekistan has expressed a similarly supportive stance toward the CPEC.
The participation of energy-rich Uzbekistan in the CPEC project has the potential to double Pakistan's energy output for the next six years, ensuring the country has permanent access to electricity. Kazakhstan is also seemingly eager to launch joint projects under CPEC and has highlighted the importance of the CPEC for Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region, as it would provide an alternative access to the sea. Kazakhstan and Pakistan have concluded that both countries have large scope for trade in textile and cotton products, pharmaceuticals, food items, engineering equipment and machinery and construction enterprises. They have signed memorandums of understanding for cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, defense and strategic studies and training in foreign services.
And the Central Asian Republics happen to be the nearest and most dependable source of energy supplies via fastest trade routes for China's burgeoning economic growth.
Three of the Central Asian states have common borders with China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region so Xinjiang is being planned as a future economic and transportation hub for 75 percent of Chinese trade with the Central Asian Republics. Further down the route Xinjiang connects with Pakistan so it is all set to function as a key trade center on the Silk Road Economic Belt. An extensive highway network is to be laid for transporting oil, coal and agricultural products from Xinjiang which would be shipped out from Pakistan's Gwadar Port.
Thus Central Asia is unlocked once it links to these trade routes and it gains access to the CPEC. The CPEC lies at the very heart of an intricate network of corridors working their way through land and sea as they connect vast regions, it can be defined as the most important of the six Belt and Road corridors.
The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) transport corridors are key conduits, improving connectivity and facilitating cross-border movement in the region. Most CAREC countries are landlocked and rely almost exclusively on overland transport for trade within the region and with markets just outside. Comprising an extensive, but still underdeveloped, network of roads and railways spanning the region, the six CAREC corridors are intended to expand trade and improve competitiveness, and in the process augment regional economic cooperation. The idea of a "corridor" was developed to address the trade and accessibility problems of landlocked countries. The corridor concept has since evolved to include transport, trade, logistics, economic, and even supply chain corridors.
In addition, these corridors have exceeded their primary functions, and they are now indispensable in promoting global and regional economic development.
Consequently, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formed as a confidence building forum aimed to promote the integration of the region. India and Pakistan became members of the SCO in 2017.
Central Asia is important in its own right because it is the vital fulcrum between the dynamism of East Asia and the wealth and technology in Western Europe. Proactively, Central Asia is being reoriented into the new Silk Road and Eurasian Economic Union to promote the joint objectives and unity of the region.
While highlighting the significance of Pakistan in the CPEC connectivity initiative it is observed that the country is actually one of the supercontinent's most important economic hopes, as it has the potential to connect the massive economies of the Eurasian Union, Iran, the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and China, thereby inaugurating the closest thing to an integrated Pan-Eurasian economic zone.
To conclude, the CPEC is instrumental to uplifting the entire regional economy, not only through the land routes but also through sea channels. The CPEC, therefore, not only benefits Pakistan and China, but also the Central Asian Republics.
The author is a research scholar specializing in governance and public policy. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
Editor:Cherie
