Imran rubbishes notion CPEC a debt trap for Pakistan

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has rejected the notion, being projected by US officials, that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is some sort of a debt trap for Pakistan.

“Pakistan is grateful to China as they helped us in difficult times by making investments,” said the Prime Minister in an interview with American media outlet CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We were at rock bottom when the Chinese [government] came and rescued us,” the Prime Minister said. Responding to a question, he rejected the impression that the CPEC has made Pakistan “indebted” to China. He pointed out that Chinese loans account for only 5-6 per cent of Pakistan’s total loan portfolio. “CPEC envisages cooperation in different sectors, including technology transfer in the agriculture sector,” he said. “...because of Chinese investment, we have been able to attract more foreign investment in the country. We are establishing special economic zones under the project,” he added.

On US-Iran tensions, the Prime Minister said any conflict between the United States and Iran would be a disaster, reiterating that instead of providing solutions, wars always begot more issue. “It will be a disaster if this conflict takes place between the US and Iran… Trust me, Iran would be much much more difficult conflict than even Afghanistan,” he said.

Calling the US’ readiness for dialogue “sensible”, Khan said despite passage of 19 years, the solution to Afghan conflict was yet to be found out with the parties still trying to keep the peace talks and ceasefire going.

“Still people are dying in Afghanistan. This is 19 years. Over a trillion dollars spent on it. Does the US want another conflict,” he remarked. “People should never rely on military solution. You use military to solve one problem, five other problems come up—unintended consequences. A conflict right now with Iran would be a disaster for developing countries… Oil prices will shoot up. Countries like us, who are just about balancing our budgets, everything will go up and it will just cause poverty,” the Prime Minister added. “People, who try and solve issues through bloodshed and war, they always cause mayhem in this world.”

Highlighting the Kashmir issue, the Prime Minister said he could not say what could be the outcome of Kashmir issue as India had been taken over by the extremist ideology of Hindutva, seeking Hindu supremacy.

Besides taking steps to change the demography of the disputed territory through constitutional amendments and putting eight million people under siege, Khan said, India had also enacted legislation for ethnic cleansing of Muslims in India.

He expressed his fear that the situation could spill over to other parts in the region and called for the international community’s role for taking steps to deter Indian designs. He said that was why he had asked President Trump to intervene right now for being the president of the most powerful country.

To a question about his efforts for mediation, the Prime Minister said he always desired to be a partner of peace, adding Pakistan had suffered and he knew the consequences as 70,000 people had died in the war against terrorism and the country had lost hundreds of billions of economy.

Asked about his government’s performance on the economic front, Khan said they had inherited a bankrupt and indebted economy with huge fiscal and current deficit. “It took a year to stabilise the economy and fortunately it stabilised. Market sentiment has gone up. Foreign direct investment has risen by 200 per cent in one year and now we are moving to export-led growth, rather than consumer or import-led growth,” he remarked.

He also said the government was striving to revive industrialisation for wealth creation that would ultimately help alleviate poverty.

To a question, Khan said the year 2019 had been the safest year since 2003, courtesy to the security forces who controlled the crime and disarmed the militias, following the consensus among all political parties. Following the improvement of the security situation, the influx of tourists had doubled and Pakistan became safe and ready for business too, he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Khan on Thursday mentioned corrupt systems in the country as the biggest challenge currently faced by the government, Geo News reported.

Speaking at the ‘Pakistan Breakfast Meet at Davos’ on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the Prime Minister shared his vision about Pakistan’s progress and related subjects, including strategic vision, fighting corruption, poverty alleviation and geopolitical balance. He stated that corrupt systems are the biggest hindrance in the implementation of institutional reforms. “It is like everyone wants to remove the tumour, but does not want the pain of surgery,” he said, adding that the moment the nation realises the importance of good governance, the country will make progress.