Pak govt plans to renegotiate agreements reached under China’s BRI: Report

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s newly elected government plans to renegotiate the agreements reached under China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it “unfairly benefits Chinese companies”, according to a media report.The projects concerned are part of the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) plan – the most ambitious part of the BRI, which seeks to connect Asia and Europe along the ancient silk road, The Financial Times reported.The ministers and the advisors of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government said the agreement “unfairly benefits Chinese companies,” the paper reported.
The CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.Prime Minister Khan, who was elected on a platform of anti-corruption and transparency, in the past had criticised jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the lack of transparency and corruption in the CPEC projects.Khan has pledged to publish details of existing CPEC contracts whose details remained closely guarded secrets.”The previous government did a bad job negotiating with China on CPEC — they didn’t do their homework correctly and didn’t negotiate correctly so they gave away a lot,” Abdul Razak Dawood, Prime Minister Khan’s Adviser on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment, was quoted as saying by the UK-based paper.”Chinese companies received tax breaks, many breaks and have an undue advantage in Pakistan; this is one of the things we’re looking at because it’s not fair that Pakistan companies should be disadvantaged,” he said.Prime Minister Khan has established a nine-member committee to evaluate the CPEC projects and the committee is scheduled to meet for the first time this week, said Dawood, who sits on the new committee. The committee will “think through CPEC – all of the benefits and the liabilities”, the paper quoted him as saying.”I think we should put everything on hold for a year so we can get our act together,” he said.”Perhaps we can stretch CPEC out over another five years or so,” said Dawood, who is a leading businessman.Newly-appointed Finance Minister Asad Umar has promised to bring about transparency to the CPEC projects.”Several other officials and advisers to the Khan government concurred that extending the terms of CPEC loans and spreading projects out over a longer timeframe was the preferred option, rather than outright cancellation, the paper said.