How Covid19 has affected the completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

People are suggested to stay at home, isolate themselves, and to maintain safe social distance. When it comes to the construction sector, maintaining distance seems like a big issue as many people are facing major financial issues. The development projects which were supposed to bring a huge change in Pakistan’s economic growth are stopped and hurdles are automatically generated in their successful completion.

Due to the hindrances generated by the outbreak of Covid19 the construction projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) such as CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) are facing delay. Just like the rest of the countries, Pakistan has also announced lockdown to help in reducing the spread of the Corona Virus in the country.

One of the major reasons that cause the delay in construction projects is the unavailability of local labor, who are forced to stay at home and observe the lockdown and to reduce the spreading of COVID19. Moreover, the government of Pakistan also announced the traveling limitations which postponed the availability of Chinese workers from traveling.

When the topic of discussion in Pakistan and the effect of COVID19 on CPEC, we can clearly see that a lot of people have become jobless, labor is not working, the projects are delaying, and the payments are paused. As a nation, we are facing a huge loss of both, our economic growth and national income. The imports and exports are stopped while the funds Pakistan used to earn through traveling and tourists are also stopped for now. The inflammation rate has increased a large number of people have lost their lives due to this incurable pandemic disease. The number of COVID19 patients in Pakistan has reached 144,478.

The government of Pakistan is very much concerned about the effects of COVID19 on construction projects under CPEC. The opponents of CPEC are criticizing the CPEC projects and spreading false news about it. They believe that is the construction projects are not stopped in time, it would cause the spreading of Coronavirus and people would never get rid of it. However, the Chinese and Pakistani governments are determined to continue the construction projects of CPEC with the same workload and progress as before the COVID19.

We all are together in this pandemic situation and wish that may we all get rid of this fatal disease very soon. The best that we can do in such a situation is to observe social distancing, manage to work from home, and avoid meeting people for a few weeks. Observe your symptoms and consult with a doctor if you got prominent symptoms.