PM Khan to visit China early next month

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the removal of obstacles hindering Chinese investment in Pakistan as he prepares to visit Beijing next month, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khalid Mansoor, told local media. 
CPEC has seen Beijing pledge over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop land and sea trade routes in Asia and beyond.
Speaking at a ceremony this week, Mansoor said Khan would visit China in February and had ordered the removal of 37 regulations to ensure a one-window operation for foreign investors, adding that the PM would personally take briefings on progress on CPEC projects every 15 days from now on. 
The CPEC Authority, Mansoor said, “is working tirelessly to remove any bottlenecks which may emerge during the execution of the CPEC projects.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong said Pakistan and China had supported each other in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and pushed forward high-quality and fast-paced development of CPEC.
“China had [so far] invested over $25 billion in Pakistan on CPEC projects generating 75,000 jobs, producing 5500kw of electricity and building over 500 kilometers of roads,” Nong was quoted by the Express Tribune as saying. 
Many of the projects under CPEC had been suspended or stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic and over financing disputes, media has widely reported in recent months. The costliest project to date under the CPEC agreement, a $6.8 billion project to upgrade railway lines, has reportedly run into trouble, with Beijing reluctant to fund the project at the one percent rate demanded by Islamabad. And of $19 billion worth of energy projects in Pakistan to produce 11,648MW electricity, only four projects have so far been completed. 
Delay in getting 116 acres of land in Gwadar vacated by law enforcement agencies has also slowed down work on the Gwadar Free Zone and Gwadar Eastbay Expressway — two projects seen as critical for the full functioning of Gwadar Port — Pakistani media has reported.