When Pakistan and China sat down recently for talks on Beijing's major Belt and Road initiative known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the China side showed a distinct lack of enthusiasm toward pumping more money into new projects.
The two countries held the sixth round of meetings of the Joint Cooperation Committee, the apex body of CPEC, on Nov. 4-6, and it concluded without a major breakthrough on new projects.
Pakistan invited China to expand the scope of CPEC by investing in the oil and gas sector, and offered to sell the loss-making Pakistan Steel Mills to China. However, China did not make any financial commitment in response to these offers.
The Pakistan government had expected China to add a number of new projects in CPEC in this round of meetings of the joint committee. This indicates that China's is taking a cautious approach toward the corridor projects.
Experts said China has apparently adopted a policy of completing the existing projects in the corridor before making additional financial commitments.
Malik Siraj Akbar, a Washington, D.C., based analyst, said China has invested substantially in Pakistan, but it feels Islamabad does not have the capability and the efficient government machinery to effectively complete various projects.
"China has decided to slow down to make sure all the ongoing projects are completed on time without throwing more money toward Pakistan," he told the Nikkei Asian Review.
One reason for China's cautious approach toward CPEC is the ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan. "China understands the risks of funneling so many loans to a nation that is heavily indebted and mired in a balance of payments crisis that its government appears incapable of ending," said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.
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