CPEC – toward economic integration of South and Central Asia
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a large-scale project valued at more than $ 50 billion, will help South Asia to resolve an acute energy deficit by providing access to huge hydrocarbon resources of Central Asia, and boost trade between regions, experts say. Enhancing connectivity through modernized road, rail and air transport networks will encourage business activity, people-to-people ties through scientific and creative circles and create a model of win-win partnership in the integrated region of Central and South Asia, the official website of the project says. The deep-water Pakistani port of Gwadar, washed by the Arabian Sea, being one of the hubs of the corridor, in the future can establish communications with the countries of Central Asia with further access to Europe. The port will be connected by rail, road and energy routes to western China and all major cities of Pakistan. Moreover, the authorities plans to reconstruct International airport of Gwadar, located 14 km from port city, in the light of turning this province into the key economic center of the region. The major marine logistics hub is promising in terms of delivering Central Asian energy resources and goods to the markets of South Asia, West Asia, Persian Gulf, African continent. According to the analyst of the Baku Center for Strategic Studies Fuad Shahbazov, Central Asia, which has no access to the open sea but has considerable resources, has always sought to gain entry to regional markets, including the markets of Pakistan, China, India and West Asia. CPEC could provide Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with a strategic opportunity to promote their products in regional and global markets. Undoubtedly, the economic benefits of the project will ultimately lead to the growth in the well-being of all Asia space, which is a home for more than 4 billion people. At a recent South Asian forum at the London School of Economics, Indian and Pakistani analysts, former senior civilian and military officials, suggested that India's likely accession to the CPEC would help normalize Pakistani-Indian relations, as active economic contacts are a powerful converging factor in any format of interaction. Vice Chancellor of Punjab University (Pakistan) Dr. Zaffar Mueen Nasar believes that the corridor will serve to consolidate peace in South Asia in the context of resolving differences between Pakistan, India and the settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. As the latter is called to become a geo-economic link between the CPEC and Central Asia. Turkmenistan's participation in this project has repeatedly occupied one of the central places on the agenda of the Turkmen-Pakistani summit talks. In general, the concept of CPEC is successfully synchronized with Turkmenistan's strategic vision for the development of a multimodal transport connection with access to the largest international and regional maritime, highway, railway and air hubs and the promotion of transit corridors along the North-South and West-East directions. The growing export potential of Turkmenistan actualizes the availability of perspective channels access to global markets and, in this sense, the Gwadar port can become one of these routes.
