The construction site at Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea (BEHRAM BALOCH/AFP/Getty Images)China is building a separate ‘colony’ for 5 lakh Chinese nationals at a cost of $ 150 million in Gwadar, Economic Times has reported. The proposed city will be completed by 2022.
Only Chinese will be living in this city, which adds to the notion that it will be the first Chinese ‘colony’ in Pakistan. Similar Chinese cities have been built in African nations and in Central Asia.
The Chinese nationals will serve as the workforce for the financial district China is planning in Gwadar, which will hit Pakistani aspirations of high-value job creations through the project.
The China-Pak Investment Corporation has bought 3.6 million square foot International Port City for its financial district. China is heavily invested in pipelines, railways, highways, power plants, industrial areas and mobile networks in Pakistan, thereby providing necessary infrastructure for shipping goods from its industrial cities. 19 out of 39 proposed CPEC projects are either underway or completed with China having spent $18.5 billion on the project since 2015.
India is one of the few countries that has opposed the CPEC, which is a part of Belt and Road Initiative of China due to concerns over its passage through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. India has earlier raised concerns over excessive debt burden imposed on developing nations due to Chinese projects in South Asia.
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