CPEC-related projects are transparent and carry no hidden debt, clarifies Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said that misinformation was spread about the CPEC loan and clarified that the Chinese debt is only 26 percent of the total external liabilities of Pakistan.

Asad Umar was talking to media persons in Islamabad on Tuesday. He said that CPEC-related projects are transparent and carry no hidden debt.

Reacting to a recent report of an American think tank on CPEC, he said 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, he added.

Asad Umar said 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 the loans which were taken by the government were also at the concessional rate of two percent.

He said China has also provided grants to execute different CPEC related projects.

Asad Umar said that a vocational training institute has been established in Gwadar with the Chinese grant.

Asad Umar said fake news is spread against the corridor project in order to spread despondency amongst the people and give a wrong impression to the world about Pakistan.

The Minister for Planning said most of the projects under the CPEC have been completed in the stipulated period. He said both Pakistan and China welcome investment from other countries in this project. He said Pakistan will support transforming this bilateral corridor into a regional corridor project.