Pakistan has changed dramatically in recent years. In 2015, then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had extensive business experience, saw CPEC as an opportunity and a “Game Changer” for Pakistan, and Pakistan seized the opportunity to vigorously develop CPEC. Thanks to the joint efforts of Pakistan and China, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has entered a fast track of development.
As ordinary Pakistanis, what changes have taken place around us since the CPEC was launched? Just listen to me.
Since the launch of the project in 2015, the biggest impact on Pakistan is that the basic life of the people has been greatly improved. First of all, we solved the problem of power shortage that has plagued us for a long time. Remember twitter circulated a nightlife contrast figure and night lights bright in other countries but Pakistan was dark. Although this picture is meant to amuse the public, in our Pakistan people are sad and ironic. This is indeed Pakistan’s situation, even in the city of Lahore, Karachi, and even the capital, Islamabad, we spend our nights out of sight, and that’s what’s happening in the modern world. There were severe power shortages and power cuts of more than ten hours a day. After the CPEC project was launched, the power shortage problem has been greatly improved, the night in Islamabad is no longer dark, and the air conditioning can be used all day in hot summer.
Power shortage has always been a pain point for Pakistan’s economic development. In September 2021, the Matiari-Lahore transmission line project, a key project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, began commercial operation.
The Matiari-Lahore transmission line project belongs to The Pakistan Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company, with an annual power transmission capacity of 35 billion kilowatt hours. The Matiari
Direct Current project has provided electricity to about 9.3 million households in Pakistan and created about 7,000 local jobs during its construction. The 886-km Power transmission line project has many Chinese characteristics. The project is invested, built and operated by The State Grid Corporation of China in accordance with Chinese standards.
Apart from the resolution of the power issue, the construction of the CPEC is of far-reaching significance to Pakistan’s development. Infrastructure, such as roads, had been slow for years, but now a network of expressways and other roads has made it easier for people to get around. In addition, after the CPEC was launched, there was a need for frequent exchanges of experience, culture and scholarship with Chinese businessmen, engineers, migrant workers and scholars. They brought China’s advanced science and technology as well as production and construction concepts to us and changed our way of thinking. Since then, Pakistan has started the Chinese model.
In addition to the above mentioned, CPEC’s impact on ordinary Pakistanis includes: the speed of logistics has improved, making it no longer difficult for people to buy and mail goods. Every year, Pakistani students receive scholarships to study in China. The enterprises under the CPEC project provide a lot of jobs for Pakistani people and so on.
The outbreak of the moment, the world economy, and China Pakistan Economic Corridor is more or less having also been affected. If the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor can continue to develop steadily, for us ordinary people also will further expand the influence of Pakistan will become more apparent, the benefits of any discredit of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will be useless.