Cooperation beyond port

China has implemented large-scale cooperation projects with Pakistan on electricity and new energy and has promoted the management of the port of Gwadar.

Syed Iftikhar Hussain Babar, secretary of the Pakistan Board of Investment, estimated that China's investment in Gwadar Port, including highways connecting the port and eastern coastline of the port, bulwarks of the port, anchorage dredging, a free trade zone and the new Gwadar international airport, would all be completed in three to five years.

Moreover, the CPEC project is not confined to the Gwadar Port infrastructure construction. China is also aiming to upgrade the 1,300-km Karakoram Highway, the highest paved international road in the world, which connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram Mountains.

In addition to road and railway construction, the project also includes energy cooperation and investment programs.

Xi's upcoming visit to Pakistan will lift the project to a new level, as China and Pakistan will sign extensive deals on energy, infrastructure, education and culture.

Regional benefits 

This vision of the CPEC, once realized, will have great strategic significance for the development of China, South Asia and Central Asia as well as for peace and stability in the region.

For China, the project with Pakistan links China's strategy to develop its western region with Pakistan's focus on boosting its economy, Ma Jiali, researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International relations, told Xinhua.

The construction of the economic corridor will also help improve the security situation in the poverty-ridden province of Baloschistan of Pakistan, which is in the front line of the anti-terrorist war.

Moreover, when Gwadar Port is completed, it will become a crucial port for landlocked Central Asian countries, such as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and a transfer center of those countries' cargo transportation to countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and other destinations.