Pakistani PM says CPEC projects, slowed by pandemic, to be 'expedited'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday work on projects under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would be expedited, after they were halted or slowed down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The statement came during the inauguration of the 660KV high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) Matiari-Lahore power transmission line project, which is also a part of the economic corridor.
CPEC has seen Beijing pledge over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to give China a shorter, more secure trading route, via Pakistan, to the Middle East and beyond, while also boosting Pakistan’s economy.
But media reports in recent weeks have said many of the projects under CPEC had been suspended or stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic and over financing disputes.
Khan said the pace of CPEC projects had slowed down due to the coronavirus pandemic but work would pick up now.
"The coronavirus pandemic broke out, which caused some issues, but our CPEC projects are progressing fast again," he said. "CPEC started from roads and power generation, but now it has reached transmission. So this CPEC, God willing, it will be expedited."
The assurance by the Pakistani premier came a week after China asked Islamabad to improve security conditions for its workers in Pakistan as a “precondition” for progress on CPEC projects.
The demand follows last month's suicide bomb attack on a motorcade carrying Chinese personnel in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. The incident left two Pakistani children dead and a Chinese national wounded on the East Bay Expressway in the port city of Gwadar, which a flagship CPEC project.
In July, the bombing of a bus killed nine Chinese workers who were en route to a dam construction site in northern Pakistan.