Beijing, China: Pakistan has gained the senses of merely being a mediator for China-Europe trade, than being a beneficiary from China’s BRI project, which has been going on in Pakistan for a few years now. As per the claims of Nectar Gan of The Singapore Post, China’s project has neither benefitted the citizens, nor the infrastructure in Pakistan, while China has been making use of Pakistan’s land and rail network for its own good.
As Gan remarked, China has also refrained from making explanations of the loopholes in the BRI experiment being conducted in Pakistan. In 2022, China operated about 16000 China-Europe trade freight trains, which carried 1.6 million standard container worth of goods.
Following the reports, the trains running through the New Land-Sea Corridor in China transported about 756,000 containers, which rose at an annual rate of 18.5 per cent. At the same time, about nine million passengers in 2022 commuted through the China-Laos Railway.
Further, Gan added that China has always termed these projects as milestones of progress. A new BRI push has begun with China’s shift in focus of its foreign policy, which now focuses on the development of its external influence than internal development.
The media reports state that China, since its rise, has always sought to provide a non-US alternative for the world countries, and with this vision, it has always indulged in expanding its reach into distant markets and trade enterprises.
According to a recent publication from The Hong Kong Post, China’s Belt and Road initiative was appreciated by Nigerian politicians, although the local Nigerians have been excluded from the decision making process and the implementation of the mentioned project, which has led to problems of debt and sustainability.
Temitope Runsewe, the MD of Nigerian engineering and construction company, Dutum Company Limited stated that governments get lured by Chinese companies, which show up with cheap funds from China instead of strengthening the local capacity.
