Small projects to boost income fast, increase employment: Chinese scholar

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

BEIJING, Aug 1 (APP): The small and beautiful projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would boost income fast, increase employment and benefit local people.

As CPEC and other BRI projects between China and Pakistan have focused on major infrastructure, more small but beautiful projects would be set to boost income fast and increase employment and benefit local people, Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University told Global Times.

While commenting on China Vice Premier, He Lifeng’s visit to Pakistan, he said that it showed that China attached great importance to China-Pakistan relations and the CPEC.

Analysts further noted that ensuring the safety of the CPEC and BRI projects is also a task for both China and Pakistan.

It is undeniable that the CPEC projects have brought concrete benefits to Pakistan, and both China and Pakistan will further improve the building of BRI projects despite external attempts to undermine it or some Western countries’ hyping of the debt trap rhetoric or security issues, analysts said.

Zhu said that financing problems, a thorny issue in Pakistan that the West has never been willing to help with, can be solved only by investment and development, which is what China and other countries are trying to do.

Some Western countries’ smearing of the CPEC and BRI projects is unfair and ill-intentioned. Zhu said that Pakistan has a clear understanding of this hype and also attaches importance to the development of the CPEC.