CPEC- Corruption, Not India, Is CPEC's Biggest Threat?

ACTION RESEARCH FORUM: CPEC ENGULFED IN ALL SORT OF CORRUPTION BY ALL END, CHINA END AND SHARIF BROTHERS END HAND IN HAND, TOWARD SINKING, IF NOT DULY CHECKED, THE FEDERAL MINISTER IQBAL, IS LOST HIS REPUTE IN THE SHARIF SEA OF CORRUPTION. GOD MAY BLESS. 

Source: Panos Mourdoukoutas, https://www.google.com/search?rct=j&q=Panos%20Mourdoukoutas, CONTRIBUTOR

CPEC- Corruption, Not India, Is CPEC's Biggest Threat?

Source: Panos Mourdoukoutas, https://www.google.com/search?rct=j&q=Panos%20Mourdoukoutas, CONTRIBUTOR

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor's (CPEC) biggest threat isn’t India. It's corruption.

On both ends of the partnership — China and Pakistan, which makes the ambitious

project look like a “sand castle.” CPEC’s long delays and cost overruns leaves Pakistan heavily indebted, heading to the door step of IMF, as it did back in 2001.

Foreign investors have been already casting a wary eye on the situation, especially

after the recent shift in U.S. policy toward Pakistan that roiled the country’s markets.

Index/Fund 3-month Performance 12-month performance

IShares China (FXI) 14.15% 17.97%

Global X MSCI Pakistan (PAK) -8.95% -17.06

iShares S&P India 50 (INDY) 1.11 5.97%

Source: Finance.yah00.com 10/4/2017

India has good reason to oppose CPEC. The project stretches through areas India

considers its own, such as Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Then there’s an ongoing concern that CPEC, together with a string of other projects in the Indian Ocean, is part of China’s grand plan to encircle India.

But so far, New Delhi has done very little to slow down the project, other than

participating in joint exercises with America and Japan to counter the China-Pakistan

alliance. The joint naval exercise in the Malabar in the Bay of Bengal last July was an

example of that.

Meanwhile, CPEC is lifting Pakistan out from the bottom of the world competitive

rankings, as it was discussed in previous piece here. But that progress may not be

sustainable. The project is facing both delays and costs overruns due to corruption on both sides of the partnership: on the China side, which plans and constructs the project, and on the Pakistani side, which oversees the execution of the project.

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