CPEC projects have no secret debt, says Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Planning Minister Asad Umar has said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects are transparent and have no secret debt.

Reacting to a recent report of an American think tank on CPEC at a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said that details about the corridor project have been shared on multiple occasions including at the level of parliament. There is also a parliamentary oversight on this mega project.

The Minister clarified that the Chinese debt is only twenty six percent of the total external liabilities of Pakistan. “Pakistan has a debt servicing challenge which we are meeting but clarified that they do not have any problem with the Chinese debt.”

Asad Umar said that the terms of debt financing for power projects executed under the CPEC is actually more favorable than the non-CPEC financing which had come in from other multilateral agencies.

He said that the loans which were taken by the government were also at the concessional rate of two percent. “China has also provided grants to execute different CPEC related projects. A vocational training institute has been established in Gwadar with the Chinese grant.”

Planning Minister Asad Umar said that fake news are spread against the corridor project in order to spread despondency amongst the people and give a wrong impression to the world about Pakistan. “Most of the projects under the CPEC have been completed in the stipulated period. Both Pakistan and China welcome investment from other countries in this project. Pakistan will support transforming this bilateral corridor into a regional corridor project,” he concluded.