Pakistan Economy Thread

[NiuBiDaRen]

The Pakistani government seems to have focused on the power generation and roads projects first. If you look at it most of the coal and nuclear power plants have been built already.

As for Gwadar port I doubt it can have much success until the railroad to it is built. All the railroad projects in CPEC are severely delayed. Even the upgrade of the main railroad from Karachi to Pechawar to double tracked electrified rail, with automatic signaling, which would boost rail speed from 60 kph to 160 kph hasn't been done yet. Let alone the railroad to Gwadar.
Just from the speed difference you can see the difference in cargo hauling capacity the line upgrade would make and that is even if you don't consider doubling the track. If you upgrade those rail lines and modernize port facilities in Karachi then you can use that to boost industry through the most densely populated corridor in Pakistan.

I think the pipeline project which has been signed with Russia to pipe energy inside Pakistan will be more important than the pipelines into China. Because like you guys said the pipeline would be going into Xinjiang, not where the main population centers in China are, so it would be of limited benefit to China.

The pipeline project with Russia has stalled because of Western sanctions which is a pity. Maybe China can help.

Pakistan is adding about 3 GW capacity of nuclear and 3 GW of coal in these few years, plus a huge amount of hydro. Most of these use Chinese technology under CPEC. This should help reduce costs even with the bumbleheaded central govt moves in the past few weeks. Thankfully they weren't building that many LNG to power plants unlike other countries, otherwise it would be empty cows. Coal is the cheapest fossil fuel during this time. And reduce the blackout/brownout problems.

 

[luosifen]